LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 
Chap._0_2wopyrigirt No, 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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T. H. BALL. 



Southwestern Indiana 



FROM 1800 TO 1900 



A View of our Region through the 
Nineteenth Century 



T. H. BALL, 



Active Member of Indiana Academy of Science; Corresponding Member 

of Wisconsin State Historical Society; Hohorary Member of 

Trinity Historical Society of Texas ; Author of Lake 

County, 1872; Lake of the Red Cedars; Poems 

and Hymns ; Annie B. ; Notes on Luke's 

Gospel; Home of the 

Redeemed, etc. 



it? 



CROWN POINT, VALPARAISO, LA PORTE, KNOX, WINAMAC, 
MONTICELLO, RENSSELAER, KENTLAND. 

1900 



Copyright, 1900, 
By T. H. Ball. 



40370 

1 * apiEs Rfcf mo 
AUG 30 1900 



second copv. 

Of iver«l u 

OftOtH DIVISION, 

SEP 6 



"It is well for every form of organized society, from the family to 
the nation, to pause occasionally and devote itself to a review of the 
past, recalling 1 whatever of persons and events may be worthy of 
recollection, and placing on permanent record so much of the gathered 
results as ought to be preserved." 

DR. BARON STOW. 



74233 



r s 



iA- 



DONOHUE & HENNEBERRY, 

PRINTERS AND BINDERS, 
CHICAGO. 



DEDICATION. 



To the memory of my Father and my Mother, who 
were true pioneers in Lake County, and from whom my earli- 
est and best impulses in the line of literature were received; 
and to the memory of other pioneers, good and true men 
and women, hundreds of whom made homes in this North- 
western Indiana in the early pioneer days; as a memorial of 
their privations, their energy, their success; this volume is 
affectionately dedicated. 

T. H. BALL. 



CONTENTS. 



19. 



PAGE. 

Introduction 5 

(General Outlines 11 

The Indians 21 

The Early Settlers 35 

What the Early Settlers 

Found 61 

Pioneer Life 79 

County Organizations.. 98 

Our Lakes and Streams 112 
Lake Michigan Water 

Shed 117 

Townships and Statis- 
tics 121 

Railroad Life 124 

Political H; story 148 

The War Record 164 

Religious History 178 

Religious History 201 

Religious History 221 

Sunday Schools 234 

Towns and Villages of 

Newton and Jasper. . . 246 
Towns and Villages of 
White, Pulaski and 

Starke 260 

Villages, Towns and 

Cities of Lake 275 



PAGE. 

20. Villages and Towns of 

Porter 308 

21. Villages, Towns and 

Cities of La Porte 330 

22. Early Travels 352 

23. Public Schools 361 

24. Private and Parochial 

Schools 386 

25. Libraries 392 

26. Our Indn stries 402 

27. Social Organizations... 421 

28. The Kankakee Region . . 43(5 

29. Draining Marshes 439 

30. Animals and Plants.... 448 

31. Miscellaneous Records. 458 

32. Court Houses 476 

33. Archaeological Speci- 

mens 485 

34. Birth Places of the Pio- 

neers 491 

35. McCarty 497 

36. Attempts to Change .... 502 

37. Altitudes 507 

38. Miscellaneous Records. 510 

39. Some Statistics. 536 

40. Weather Record 541 

Conclusion 564 



Separate maps of Lake and Jasper Counties will be readily found. 
The map or chart of Indiana showing date of purchases was copied by 
permission from an official chart issued by the State Auditor. Lake 
County on the larger map is not filled out because there is a separate 
map of that County. 



INTRODUCTION. 

This work will include, in the term North- Western 
Indians, all the area between what is known in the 
United States survey as the Second Principal Meridian 
and the Illinois State Line, from township 26, north- 
ward to the Indiana Boundary Line. The width of 
this region is thus nine ranges and about one section, 
or fifty-five miles, and its length is nearly twelve town- 
ships, or about seventy-two miles, making an area, 
including a part of Lake Michigan, in even numbers, 
of 3,960 square miles. 

In this area are seven entire counties and parts of 
two others, but only a very small part of Cass County, 
and the counties to be^included in this history, as 
forming North-Western Indiana, are Lake, Porter, 
LaPorte, Starke, Pulaski, and White, and Newton and 
Jasper. 

It will thus, at the southeast corner of the parallel- 
ogram, barely touch the Wabash River a few miles 
from Logansport. The Tippecanoe, the Iroquois, the 
Yellow, the Kankakee, and the Calumet, are its prin- 
cipal rivers. 

In thus taking the second principal meridian as the 
limit eastward of North-Western Indiana there are 
left for North-Eastern Indiana fourteen ranges, or 
thirty miles more than one-half of the full width of the 
State. 

The entire history of this region, in much detail, 
could not in a volume of this size be given; but in- 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



teresting and certainly valuable facts connected with 
its early settlement and growth, will here be found, 
some of which can be found nowhere else; and the 
author believes that the condensed and the detailed 
history and the gathered facts and incidents, as ar- 
ranged in this book, will be an acceptable and a valu- 
able addition to the accumulating store of our historic 
treasure, as we are in Indiana, closing up one century 
of progress and closing up at the same time the Nine- 
teenth Century of the Christian Era. 

In regard to the sources of information for the 
statements contained in this work, the author can 
claim, in the first place, some personal knowledge de- 
rived from his own observation, as he has had a home 
in this region since 1837, coming here from the State 
of Massachusetts in the spring of that year, when 
eleven years of age (old enough to observe, and, as 
he had then studied Latin and Greek in academies 
and high schools, cultivated enough to discriminate 
and make records) ; ancl since 1875 ne nas been the 
Historical Secretary of the Old Settlers' Association of 
Lake County : and, in the second place, he has availed 
himself of the helps furnished by different County and 
State publications. Especially from an Illustrated 
Historical Atlas of Indiana, published in 1876, by Bas- 
kin, Forster & Co., he has taken many statements of 
early times and of settlements in counties which his 
personal knowledge did not reach, statements in re- 
gard to those early years which could not now be ob- 
tained. That historical atlas is a valuable work for 
Indiana up to 1875. 

That some corrections would need to be made, and 
that room would be found for desirable additions, in 
the historical writings of those who have gone before 



INTRODUCTION. 



him in giving county history, might naturally be ex- 
pected, and from his long residence in this region, 
while most of those writers referred to have been non- 
residents and strangers, and on account of his special 
training and the line of work which for many years he 
has pursued, the author of this book believes that the 
readers will find here some carefully prepared and 
quite accurate history, and he cherishes the hope that 
it will become a recognized authority, in its special 
lines of treatment, concerning North-Western In- 
diana. 

It is hoped that no apology is needed for inserting 
here the rather lengthy extracts that follow. 

A\'ell said Dr. Baron Stow, of Boston, at a large 
religious semicentennial in 1864, speaking of the dis- 
position of aged persons to give reminiscences of their 
youth, "this tendency to retrospection and historical 
narration is not merely an accident of human decline ; 
it is a beneficent arrangement of Divine Providence. 
In all education, experience renders an important 
service, . and for its teaching there is no substitute. 
'Thou shalt remember all the way in which the Lord 
thy God hath led thee.' 'One generation shall praise 
Thy works to another, and shall declare Thy mighty 
acts.' The past is thus brought forward into the pres- 
ent ; the stream of tradition is kept running ; and, while 
the less valuable facts may be precipitated and left by 
the way, the more important are borne along as ma- 
terials for the continuous history of our race. * * * 
The world and the church of our times do well to un- 
derstand how much they are indebted to the memories 
of the more aged as the successive reservoirs of facts, 
and now much also, to what are thoughtlessly called 
the garrulities of age, for the communication of those 



8 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

facts. If it is an ordering of Providence that every 
generation shall create a portion of history, it is 
equally intended that every generation shall convey to 
its successor all that is worthy of transmission. * * * 
The successive generations overlap one another in 
precisely the way to form a continuous channel for the 
traditionary current." ["The Missionary jubilee." 
Pages 91, 92.] 

THE PLAN OF THIS BOOK. 

In giving a view of North-Western Indiana for one 
hundred years, or through the Nineteenth Century, it 
is not proposed to give a continuous history of this 
region, county by county and township by township, 
as it is now divided and subdivided ; but, while recog- 
nizing these divisions as they now exist, it is proposed 
to give the history of the region as a whole, to show 
its early settlement, its growth, and what it now is, 
by treating in separate chapters, as topics or subjects 
of interest, the various particulars which belong to its 
topography, its physical features, and its general his- 
tory. The reader who will look over the chapter head- 
ings as given under the word "Contents," will see what 
these particulars are supposed to be, and so he will 
know what to expect in the book itself. Especially 
he will find, in making up the hundred years of his- 
tory, some thirty years of Indian life ; twenty years of 
white pioneer life, ten of that being white in connec- 
tion with Indian life; and then fifty years of railroad 
growth and the modern civilization and progress be- 
longing to the last half of the Nineteenth Century in 
the United States of America. When the reader has 
gone over these various chapters, has considered by 



INTRODUCTION. 



itself each subject, each topic, he will see what North- 
western Indiana once was, and what in seventy years 
of civilized life it has become. 

T. H. BALL, 
Crown Point, Indiana, 1900. 
Note. The county histories which I have ex- 
amined are these : 

1. ''History of La Porte County, Indiana, and its 
Townships, Towns, and Cities, by Jasper Packard." 
1876. 

This is an excellent and very reliable work. 

2. History of La Porte County, C. C. Chapman 
& Co., Chicago, publishers. 1880. 

Writers names not given. 

This work has not dealt quite fairly by General 
Packard. From his valuable and carefully prepared 
history it has taken not the substance only, but the 
very wording, at times, sentence by sentence, with no 
marks of quotation, no apparent acknowledgment; 
yet, as a very much larger work, — it weighs four and 
a half pounds — it contains interesting material and is 
valuable for reference. 

3. Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana. 1882. 
F. A. Battey & Co., Publishers. Weston A. Good- 
speed and Charles Blanchard, Editors. 

This is also a large book, weighing four pounds 
and an eighth, and with some blemishes and some 
large faults is a valuable reference book. 

4. History of Pulaski and White Counties, by the 
same company as the above. 

5. History of Jasper, Newton then included, Ben- 
ton, and Warren counties, by the same, F. A. Battey 
& Co., Chicago. 1883. 

These four works, written by various persons, not 



10 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

generally residents of the counties, are about the same 
in size, four pound books, and gotten up in the same 
style. They are all valuable, but too heavy for pleasant 
reading. 

6. It is almost needless to mention "Lake County," 
1872, by T. H. Ball, and "Lake County," 1884, from 
which some extracts are taken, both now out of 
print. 

I have also looked into a Biographical History of 
the counties of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, 
Benton, Warren, and Pulaski, by the Lewis Publishing 
Company, Chicago, 1899, two large volumes, costing 
the subscribers fifteen dollars. And I have examined 
with care a late History of Indiana, 1897, by W. H. 
Smith, in two good sized volumes. This is an interest- 
ing and a valuable work, but contains very little in 
regard to Northern Indiana. 

T. H. B. 



CHAPTER I. 



GENERAL OUTLINES. 

The history, proper, of this book commences with 
the year 1801. 

It would be interesting to look back over even this 
small portion of our great and growing country, along 
the three hundred years between 1800 and the time of 
Christopher Columbus, ancl glance at the Indian oc- 
cupancy of this region and at its connection with 
Spanish, French, and English explorers and colonists. 

Its position as to railroads is peculiar now ; its po- 
sition as to Indian migrations, hunting expeditions 
and wars, and as to explorers, must have been some- 
what peculiar then. North of it extended the whole 
length of Lake Michigan, a distance of about three 
hundred and forty miles ; east of it were the immense 
forests and the mountain ranges extending to the 
Atlantic coast, distant about one thousand miles ; west 
of it lay that great prairie region reaching to the river 
which became known as the Mississippi, distant nearly 
two hundred miles ; and southward lay the great 
Wabash Valley, and then, beyond a stretch of forest, 
the greater Ohio Valley, and, south of that, forests 
and rivers, and at length that great southern slope, 
drained by what are now called the Black Warrior and 
Tombigbee, and by the Alabama which receives the 
waters of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, a slope which, 
passing the great pine belt, terminates at length at the 
waters of the Bay and the great Mexican Gulf. By 



12 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

passing through forests and crossing rivers, Indians, 
explorers, and traders could pass from the shore of 
Lake Michigan to those Southern waters, a distance 
of some eight hundred miles. How many Indian 
parties ever made that journey before the days of 
Tecumseh there are no means of knowing ; but prob- 
ably the unwritten history of these three centuries 
would show some connection between our lake region 
and its Indians and that earlier explored region in the 
early Spanish and French times. That, in the latter 
part of the Seventeenth Century, La Salle and other 
French explorers passed over this lake region is quite 
certain. At the close of the "Old French War," 1763, 
the two British provinces of Illinois and West Florida 
met on the line of latitude 32.28 ; a line passing from 
the mouth of the Yazoo River eastward to the Chatta- 
hoochee, crossing the Alabama just below the union 
of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, so that in the latter part 
of the Eighteenth Century the claimants of the two 
contiguous provinces must have had some connection 
established between the two. But at the Indian life 
in these great forest regions, and the life of French 
and English traders and trappers as they journeyed 
between our Great Lake and the Southern Indians, 
we are not to look. Those three hundred years, from 
1500 to 1800, were years of strange life in American 
wilds, when the red men and white men were meeting 
each other in commerce or in conflict, sometimes mak- 
ing treaties and smoking the pipe of peace. 

We commence with a later date. 

When the hour of midnight came, on December 
31st, of the year called 1800, the Eighteenth Century 
was completed; and in the next moment of time, as 
1 801 dawned upon the world, the Nineteenth Century 
began. 



GENERAL OUTLINES. 13 

The close of the one century of the Christian Era 
and the opening of the other was not. a peaceful time 
among the European nations. Napoleon Bonaparte 
had been declared First Consul, December 5, 1799; on 
June 14, 1800, he defeated the Austrians at Marengo; 
and the strife was going on which led to his being 
proclaimed Emperor of the French, May 20, 1804. 
The waves of European strife crossed the Atlantic and 
struck upon our shores, and war with France seemed 
for a time inevitable. 

John Adams was the American President. Wash- 
ington died December 14, 1799; in 1800 the national 
capital was removed from Philadelphia to Washington 
City, and Thomas Jefferson was elected to be the next 
President of the United States. And on October 1, 
1800, by the treaty of St. Ildefonso, Louisiana was 
ceded or re-ceded by Spain to the so-called French 
Republic, which placed that large territory including 
the present Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, 
Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana, Indian Ter- 
ritory, and parts of Minnesota, Colorado, and Wyom- 
ing, in shape to be purchased by the United States 
April 30, 1803, "for fifteen millions of dollars." 

In 1800 took place another event of interest to the 
dwellers in this State of Indiana, the formation, as a 
new political division of the young and growing 
Union, of Indiana Territory. 

It was, as already mentioned, the closing year of 
the Eighteenth Century, a century which among other 
changes had seen at its beginning Detroit founded 
and Queen Anne's War begun, and, after the stormy 
events of the Revolution, which saw before it closed 
Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee, admitted as 
States into the new Union, when on May 7, of 1800, 
Indiana Territory was organized. 



14 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Soon after the close of the American Revolution, 
in July, 1787, the North-West Territory had been 
established. The French had then in what became 
in 1802, Ohio, no settlement, the first permanent Eu- 
ropean settlement in Ohio having been made at Mari- 
etta in 1788, Dayton having been settled in 1796; but 
in that part of the Territory which became Indiana 
the French had trading posts, and Vihcennes had al- 
ready become "a flourishing town," these trading- 
posts dating from 1683 to 1763, while Indiana formed 
a part of the French domain called New France. At 
the Treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, at the close of 
the "French and Indian War," these French posts and 
settlements passed into the nominal possession of the 
English, and when the War of the Revolution closed, 
they were in this wild and then largely unknown re- 
gion belonging to the territory of the new United 
States. 

In what became Indiana some early American set- 
tlements were made, but the record concerning them 
is, that "from 1788 to 1814 the settlements were much 
engaged in hostilities with the Indians." 

The North-West Territory, which has been men- 
tioned, of which Indiana Territory was a part, included 
the area west of Pennsylvania, north of the Ohio 
River, and east of the Mississippi. Some colonial 
claims to the possession of parts of this territory were 
ceded to Congress, by New York, in 1782, by Vir- 
ginia, in T784, by Massachusetts, in 1785, by Connec- 
ticut, in 1786. In 1787 an ordinance was framed for 
its management and government, passed September 
13, which provided that land should not be taken 
up by white settlers until it had been purchased from 
Indians and offered for sale by the- United States ; that 



GENERAL OUTLINES. 15 

no property qualification should be required for vot- 
ing or holding office ; that the territory, when settled 
sufficiently, should be divided into not less than three 
nor more than five States; that these should always 
remain a part of the United States ; that their form 
of government should be republican ; and that in none 
of them should slavery exist. It will be seen that the 
first of these was not fully observed in Northern In- 
diana, and, to some extent, slavery did exist in South- 
ern Indiana till after 1840. The credit of excluding 
slavery is due largely to Dr. Manasseh Cutler, of 
Massachusetts, agent of the Ohio Company. 

What our region was in 1800 when it was the home 
of the Indians may be quite well determined from jthe 
condition in which it was found by the first white set- 
tlers. The native red men made little changes in its 
natural appearance, in its animal races, in its vegetable 
productions. So we may safely assume that as the 
earliest settlers found it so it was in 1800. 

As a part of what was then the great and almost un- 
known West, it was a rather low, in most parts level, 
quite well watered region, in parts well wooded, in 
other parts open, undulating prairie and broad, level 
marshes, fifty-five miles in breadth from east to west, 
and averaging about sixty-five miles from north to 
south, containing a land area of 3,575 square miles. 

The northeastern part was heavily timbered, com- 
prising some genuine ''thick woods," the growth 
maple, beech, walnut; also ash, elm, bass-wood, and 
other species. Along Lake Michigan, for a few miles 
out, grew pine and cedar. South of this sandy belt, 
along the lake, and extending in a southwesterly 
direction into the Grand Prairie of Illinois, a stretch 
of fertile prairie in six divisions passed from the eastern 



16 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



to the western limit. Each of these was separated by 
woodland or groves from the others, and three of them 
became, as settlers went upon them, noted for their 
wonderful native beauty. It is not probable that in all 
the prairie region east of the Mississippi River the 
beauty could be exceeded of what afterwards were 
called Rolling Prairie, Door Prairie, and Lake Prairie. 

It has been said that this region was well watered. 
As will be seen on the map attached to this book a 
number of rivers crossed it, and there were as tribu- 
taries to these many small streams which the map does 
not show. Along the largest of these rivers, 
known as the Kankakee, flowing in a south- 
westerly direction, was a broad strip of marsh 
land, originally covered with water. South of 
this river was quite an extent of marshy land, also of 
broad sand ridges, two considerable water courses, 
the Tippecanoe and the Iroquois, and prairie and 
woodland between the river valleys. 

The native fruits were abundant, if not of so many 
varieties as in some parts of the land. The principal 
ones were, huckleberries, cranberries, crab-apples, 
plums, some strawberries, wintergreen berries, sand- 
hill cherries, and grapes. Huckleberries and cranber- 
ries grew in great abundance. Hundreds of bushels, 
even thousands of bushels, of huckleberries and cran- 
berries must have been eaten by the Indians and wild 
fowls or have gone to waste each year. The quantity 
of these two varieties of wild fruit growing on these 
sand ridges and marshes, is almost incredible to one 
unacquainted with the real facts. So late as 1896, 
when much of the native growth would naturally 
have been destroyed, there were marketed, it is said, 
in what is now Pulaski County, four thousand bushels 



GENERAL OUTLINES. 17 

of huckleberries, two thousand in Starke County, by 
one shipper in a good season; and many years ago, 
from a single railroad station in Lake County, there 
were shipped a thousand bushels, picked by women 
and children, in one season. Cranberries grew very 
abundantly in many marshes when the first settlers 
came. Hundreds and hundreds of bushels were 
gathered by them and sent off in wagon loads to the 
nearest markets. The Indian children, it is certain, 
could have had no lack of wild fruit in the summer 
and fall, from July ist till frost came. As late as 1837 
the two varieties of wild plums, the red and the yellow, 
were excellent in quality — the red very abundant ; and 
of crab-apples, although they were sour, yet large and 
nice, there then was no lack. There were nuts, too, 
in great abundance in the autumn time — hazel nuts, 
hickory nuts, walnuts, white and black, and beech 
nuts. In the northeastern part, where the hard or 
rock maple trees were so large and of so dense a 
growth, "thick woods," the Indians in the spring time 
could make which they did make, maple sugar, to 
sweeten their crab-apples and cranberries.* 

Whether as early as 1800 the honey bees had arrived 
to furnish the Indians with honey is not certain. They 
are said to go a little in advance of the white man, the 
heralds of his coming footsteps. Here, as early as 



♦Among the Indians in the northeastern part of La 
Porte County was a petty chief called Sagganee. 

"When the Indians were removed, Sagganee went to 
Southern Kansas with them, but soon returned, saying 
that he could not live there — there was no sugar tree. He 
had been in the habit of making maple sugar." 

Like the whites, he had become attached to the "forest 
nectar." He continued to live and died in Indiana. He 
would not live where there was no sugar tree. 



18 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

1835 the early settlers found them in trees then well 
stored with honey. Solon Robinson, Crown Point's 
earliest settler, mentions "a dozen honey trees to be 
cut and taken care of" during his first winter, the 
winter of 1834 and 1835. 

The Hornor party, camping in 1835, cut a Dee tree, 
from the contents of which they filled a three gallon 
jar with strained honey, a wash tub and a wooden 
trough with honeycomb, and estimated all at at least 
five hundred pounds. 

It is quite probable that, while fond of sugar, the 
Indians had also learned the taste of honey. Leaving 
fruits and sweets, which, without much labor on the 
part of the Indians, nature furnished in this favored 
region, some of the native animals may be noticed. 
Among those to be classed as game were black bears, 
probably not numerous, deer in vary large numbers, 
rabbits also and squirrels, the large fox, the smaller 
black, gray or cat, and red squirrels. For the 
presence of buffalo or bison on the prairies north of 
the Kankakee River, the evidence is very slight. One 
who was born at the Red Cedar Lake, in Lake 
County, who is a very close observer and a very ac- 
curate observer of nature, and of the traces of men and 
animals, accustomed to the wilds, who has trapped 
beaver and found traces of Indian encampments in 
South Alabama, encampments that had been tenant- 
less for some seventy-five years, who shot many 
buffalo on the great plains of Texas in 1877 and 1878, 
Herbert S. Ball, has found on these Indiana prairies 
no traces of the existence here of buffalo. The 
traces which they leave he knows well. But 
there probably were some small, straggling 
herds here once. Yet, all • the historic evi- 



GENERAL OUTLINES. 19 

dence of such stragglers that has reached Crown 
Point is the statement, in some of the narra- 
tives of La Salle's expedition down the Kankakee 
River, that they captured a buffalo that was mired in 
the big marsh. Elk were evidently here, because their 
horns have been found in Lake County. Bones, sup- 
posed to be mammoth bones, have been found in 
Porter County; but of Buffalo no Bone, no horn, 
seems to have yet been seen. 

Of feathered animals, there were wild turkeys in the 
heavy timber, prairie chickens or pinnated grouse on 
the prairies by the thousands, partridges and quails in 
the woods, and, in a part of the summer, in numbers 
which it would be hard for the white boys of the pres- 
ent to credit, wild pigeons. To realize the immense 
numbers of pigeons that were here in each August 
month, when some of us who are now living were 
young hunters, one would need to see them almost 
darkening the sky sometimes, and hear the sweep of 
their wings, and see them rapidly gathering the acorns 
from the oak trees, and again covering large areas in 
the stubble of the grain fields, constantly in motion, 
as they picked up the scattered grains of wheat and 
of oats. Such sights would make the boys of this day 
almost go wild with delight. The American wild 
pigeon has gone, perhaps exterminated like the bison. 
They were here in the Indian times without doubt. 
There were also in prodigious numbers various kinds 
of water-fowls, wild geese, brants, swan, sand-hill 
cranes, ducks of many species, mud-hens, and plover. 

The rivers and the lakes, of which more mention will 
be made, were well stocked with fish. With a few ex- 
cellent varieties of these, such as pike, black bass, rock 
bass, and sunfish, the lakes may be said to have been 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



swarming, and especially one, afterwards called the 
"Lake of the Red Cedars." The Indians had no long 
drag nets with which to draw these from the water, 
and when the white men drew their nets through these 
waters the multitude of fish brought to the shore was 
a remarkable sight for any one to behold. 

There was also for the Indians a large abundance of 
valuable fur-bearing animals, beaver perhaps almost 
extinct — the white settlers saw only their works — but 
otter, mink, raccoons, muskrats in prodigious num- 
bers ; and wolves, the large timber, gray wolf, the 
smaller prairie wolf, some wild cats, and, perhaps, 
occasionally a lynx. Elk were here once, as has been 
said, but whether as late as 1800 has not been ascer- 
tained. No attempt is here made to give the entire list 
of native animals, but only to name those with which 
the Indians, as hunters and trappers, would have the 
most to do. 

From this outline sketch of this region, as it must 
have been in 1800, it is evident that it was a favorable 
location for uncivilized man. 

We are now ready to look at the Indians them- 
selves. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE INDIANS.— 1800-1833. 

The North American Indians, a singular and an 
interesting portion of mankind, whose origin on this 
continent is unknown, have been divided by different 
writers into eleven or more large families, these 
families being subdivided into tribes. The terms 
Nation and Clan are also used by writers to denote 
divisions among the Indians, some writers making 
tribe co-extensive in meaning with nation, others in- 
cluding in an Indian nation several tribes. Some make 
clan a subdivision of a tribe; others make clan more 
extensive than tribe. The meaning of these different 
terms must be learned from their use. 

That in 1800 Indians alone had any proper claim 
to this region is evident, and they roamed over it at 
their own will, whether they were, as Venable calls 
them in 1763, Kickapoos, or, as the pioneers here 
found them in 1830, Pottawatomies. 

In King's Handbook of the United States, it is 
said that La Salle, "Indiana's first European visitor,' , 
concentrated "all the Indians of the Ohio Valley 
around his fort on the Illinois River, for mutual 
defense against the terrible Iroquois, and in so doing 
he depopulated Indiana." That the Indians at that 
time left the south shores of Lake Michigan is not 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



certain. It is further stated in King's Handbook 
that "After the French founded Detroit the local tribes 
wandered back into Indiana and settled there."* 

William Henry Smith, in his History of Indiana 
(1897), says that the native Indians of Indiana were 
driven out by the Iroquois before 1684, and that they 
returned from Fort St. Louis on the Illinois about 
1712. 

That the Pottawatomies were here in 1800 is 
abundantly sure, and while they or other tribes were 
proper owners of the region, they had learned that the 
French had claimed some control over them, and they 
had been in some contact with French civilization, 
and so were not the perfectly untutored Indians of the 
wilds. Yet was theirs largely the true Indian life. The 
smoke that went up into the sky from this region 
went from their wigwams or from fires that they had 
kindled ; the human voices that were heard beside the 
rivers and the lakes or in the woodlands and on the 
prairies, were the voices of their women and children 
or of their hunters and their warriors ; the pathways, 
the trails, the pony tracks, led to their villages or 
camping grounds, or dancing floors, and sometimes 
to their burial places; the boats paddled upon the 
waters were their canoes; the few places of the up- 
turned sod were the gardens for their vegetables and 
the patches for their maize. They were not, to much 
extent, tillers of the soil, although raising some corn, 



♦Detroit was founded in 1701, passed to the English in 
1760, fully in 1763; and came under the control of the 
United States in 1783. 

Detroit was again in the hands of the British from Au- 
gust 16, 1812 till October, 1813. 

T. H. B. 



THE INDIANS. 23 



more than is generally supposed, and a few garden 
vegetables ; but they were the hunters, the fishers, and 
the trappers, where fully indeed abounded game and 
fish and fur. It would not seem probable that they 
had any need to suffer, in summer or in winter, for 
want of food. 

For the first third of this century and for how many 
"moons" or years or centuries before, who knows? 
these Indians, generation after generation, were the 
principal occupants here. Tribe may have succeeded 
tribe, yet Indians were they all. But these Indians, 
our immediate predecessors, the Pottawatomies, upon 
whose resources for food we have been looking, did 
not continue, through these three and thirty years of 
the century, in the peaceful pursuits of life. Let us 
look upon them as they too take part in some of the 
conflicts that were waged. 

That noted Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, until his 
death, in October, 1813, at the battle of the Moravian 
towns, was very active in endeavoring to unite the 
Indian tribes into one great confederacy, and encour- 
aged the hostilities which led to the battle of Tippe- 
canoe, November 7, 181 1, but whether any of our 
Pottawatomies took part in that engagement cannot 
here be stated. It is said that Saggonee, who was 
so much attached to maple sugar, was at Tippecanoe. 
But the war spirit was evidently among them. The 
French, who laid claim to such a large part of this 
once wild Western world, had given to a spot on Lake 
Michigan, in longitude west from Greenwich Sy'^y, 
the name in their language which became Chicago in 
ours ; and there they had built a fort and established a 
trading post. The United States Government estab- 
lished there Fort Dearborn in 1803 or 1804 a few 



24 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

soldiers forming the garrison. War was declared be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain, June 18, 
1812, and many of the Indian tribes were ready to aid 
the British. Seeing probable danger, it was arranged 
by some one, who certainly did not consider wisely 
the value of a slight barricade or stockade against 
Indian forces, for this Fort Dearborn garrison to pass, 
if possible, through the Pottawatomie tribe, across our 
region, and reach Fort Wayne. 

They left their fortifications August 15, 1812, with 
some friendly Miamis, but had proceeded only a short 
distance from the fort when tney were attacked by the 
Pottawatomies and nearly all killed. This action is 
called the Fort Dearborn massacre. What further 
part the Pottawatomies took in the events, the cam- 
paigns of 1813 and 1814, it is not needful here to in- 
quire. In 1816 Fort Dearborn was re-established, 
troops being kept there most of the time until after 
January, 1837; and the Pottawatomies settled down 
again to their former mode of life. 

The brisk fur trade, with the two trading posts of 
Chicago and Detroit, stimulated their trapper life, as 
from the days of the first French explorers they had 
learned that the white man sets quite a large value 
upon fur, and the influence of the French missionaries, 
some of them not only zealous, but self-denying, noble 
men, still remained among them. Their burials were 
not conducted altogether with pagan rites, they knew 
the symbol of the cross and they erected crosses be- 
side some of their graves. 

But while some of the French influences for good 
remained among them until the white settlers met 
them, evil influences were also among them, coming 
from the American traders. These men furnished 



THE INDIANS. 25 



them with whisky, taught them to drink it, and 
nothing good could be the result. It has been found 
that Indians, in contact with unprincipled whites, al- 
ways lose some of their native virtues. The French, 
far better than the English or Americans, adapted 
themselves to the Indian nature, had larger control 
over them, and seem to have tried more faithfully 
to do them good. 

Yet in the first third of the Nineteenth Century, 
some Protestant American missionaries tried very 
faithfully to instruct, civilize,- and evangelize these 
Pottawatomies. 

In the year 1817 the Rev. Isaac McCoy, a Baptist, 
a native of Indiana, commenced a mission work among 
the Miamis and Kickapoos, but met with very little 
success. In 1822 he established himself at a locality 
on the St. Joseph River, about one hundred miles 
north and west from Fort Wayne, at what was called 
the "center of the Pottawatomie tribe," in what is 
now Southwestern Michigan, and named his mission 
station Carey, evidently in remembrance of Dr. Carey, 
one of the noted Baptist missionaries that went from 
England to India. He had as an assistant, Johnston 
Lykins, whom he had baptized, who was appointed as 
missionary September 2, 1822, and who "removed 
from Carey Station to the Shawanoes, July 7, 183 1"* 
At Carey a school for the Indians was opened which in 
less than two years numbered about seventy pupils, 
and in the recorded history of this station it is stated 
that "the people advanced in agriculture and the 
mechanic arts, and a considerable number were bap- 
tized." This report further states: "The first Potta- 
watomie hymn was sung at Carey November 14, 1824, 

♦Missionary Jubilee, page 257. 



26 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

by Mr. McCoy and the native assistant, Noaquette; 
the latter said, 'I wish we could make it a little longer.' 
This year there was a school of sixty Indian pupils. 
The Mission cultivated sixty acres of land." 

"In a little work called "Anthony Rollo, the Con- 
verted Indian," is found this paragraph, the record 
belonging to this same year of 1824. 

"In June, three lads, sons of one of the missionar- 
ies,* who had been at school in the state of Ohio, made 
a visit to their parents at Carey. As they passed Fort 
Wayne, one hundred miles from Carey, and the whole 
distance a wilderness without inhabitants, they met 
with poor, friendless Anthony. They set him on one 
of their horses,t they walking, and carried him to 
Carey, at which place they arrived on the 29th of 
June." This Anthony was but half Indian. His 
mother was a daughter of Topinchee, who had been a 
principal chief among the Pottawatomies, and his 
father was a French trader, He was a cripple in his 
lower limbs, walking with difficulty. At Carey he 
learned to read, became a diligent reader of the Scrip- 
tures, and an earnest, Protestant Christian. He died 
at Carey Missionary Station, March 8, 1828, twenty- 
two years of age. The reflection of the devoted mis- 
sionaries at that time was "how few of the Pottawat- 
omie tribe had reached the abodes of the blessed !" 
And they prayed, "O gracious God, permit us to hope 
that many others of this tribe will be allowed to unite 
in the everlasting song, 'Thou art worthy, for thou 
wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, 
out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and 



♦Rev. J. McCoy. 

fThe boys had only two horses. 



THE INDIANS. 27 



How much either Roman Catholic or Protestant 
teaching did for the Indians it is difficult, it is in fact 
impossible, for us to know. It is not likely very much. 
Christian principle was implanted. We all know 
that remarkable chapter about "charity," or "love/' 
as the revised version reads ; and we know also, both 
Roman Catholic and Protestant teachers alike, how 
needful this love is, love that worketh no ill to one's 
neighbor, love that is the fulfilling of the law, to fit 
the soul for the society of holy ones. And that the 
Indians who came in contact with the missionaries 
manifested the possession of much of this love is 
doubtful. And that no church rites will place this 
love within the soul we all have the opportunity of 
seeing. Yet is to be hoped that some of the Indians, 
learning as they did that a Saviour lived, that he died 
and arose from the dead, did through that knowledge 
and through the rich grace of God, who is no respecter 
of persons, reach the possession of this needful love. 
And all such we may confidently look for in Paradise. 
That from all the great divisions of the human family, 
from the white and black and red and yellow and 
brown, there will be individuals gathered to form the 
multitude that no man can number, no loving believer 
in the Christian teachings has a right to doubt. 

But however much or little real or lasting good 
was accomplished by these well meant and zealous 
mission efforts, some mention of which should 
justly be made on these pages of our Indian history, 
this Carey Mission was not in existence a sufficient 
length of time to extend its influence over our borders, 
for "by a treaty provision with the United States the 
station was substantially relinquished in 183 1." 

A change for the Indians, a great change for the 



28 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

forests and prairies and all the native dwellers here, 
was rapidly coming. White migration was pushing 
westward into the great forests of the old Northwest 
Territory. Settlements were made in the Ohio por- 
tion, and along the Ohio River, and on the Wabash, 
and the line of advance was now toward the south 
shore of Lake Michigan. Settlements had gone up 
from the Ohio River over a part of Illinois, and had 
even reached Lake Michigan, for Major Long re- 
ported at Chicago in 1827 three families living in log 
cabins. The Indians, peaceful as they have become, 
are soon to leave their choice hunting and trapping 
grounds, their favorite fishing spots and camping 
grounds and dancing floors, and worst of all the burial 
places of their dead, to the white man's occupancy 
and the white man's plowshare. Upon very little of 
that Indian life for the first third of this century can 
we now look through the eyes of those who saw and 
knew them; and yet that little is sufficient to enable 
us, with no great stretch of imagination, to see their 
hunting parties, and to see the hunters bringing in the 
deer and other game, and the squaws, or Indian 
women and girls, dressing and cooking the deer, the 
rabbits and squirrels, the ducks and geese, the grouse 
and partridges and quails ; the wigwams with the fire 
in the center and the smoke passing out through the 
opening at the top ; and the children playing round the 
camp. We can easily see them picking the wild fruit 
and also see them at their domestic employments 
around the wigwams. 

Beside the water courses, the Calumet and the 
Kankakee, the Tippecanoe, and the Iroquois, and the 
Pinkamink, and on the banks of so many small and 
beautiful lakes, while the men and boys trapped or 



THE INDIANS. 29 



fished, the women and children must have enjoyed 
the choice camping places amid the beauty of the 
bright autumn time; and those rich flowers of the 
prairie left from the golden summer, how could they 
fail, loving bright colors, richly to have enjoyed ? In 
those smoky days, when the Great Prairie and the Big 
Marsh and hundreds of smaller ones had been burn- 
ing, when the sun, so red in the morning and in the 
evening, and while visible, made no shadow even at 
midday, and the air was still ; and then in the evening 
when the full and red hunter's moon shone upon them, 
how they must have dreamed of the beautiful hunting 
grounds of which their pagan ancestors had told them 
and taught them to look for in the great future. Per- 
haps to them, amid those beauties of the world around 
them, some ideas of the power and the glory of the 
Great Spirit came. Perhaps some blind prayers went up 
from their darkened minds to his throne above. Per- 
haps some longings for a higher life came at times 
upon them. A little good, and yet it seems to have 
been a very little good, have white men done to the 
Indian race. They were here, those copper-colored, 
uneducated, native children of America, but a few 
years ago, where are now our towns and villages, our 
farms and orchards, our churches and schools, our 
domestic animals and our homes. Some of their 
stone axes, their arrow and spear heads, and many of 
their bones, are left in our soil ; their dust is here to be 
mingled with our dust; but they have passed forever 
away. They wrote no history, they published no 
songs, they erected no monuments ; even the earth- 
works are, probably, not their work; and after they 
had passed into the distant West, this fair, long 
stretch of land was almost as though they had never 



30 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

been. There were no bridges, no mills, no fences, 
no buildings, and not much mark of human occu- 
pancy. 

Something more of these Indians and of their pe- 
culiar life we may see when we come to the mixed life 
of the pioneer and Indian from 1830 to 1840, when 
incidents may be found sufficient to make a long chap- 
ter. 

At present let us look at two of their noted chief- 
tains. 

SHAUBENEE. CHEE-CHEE-BING-WAY. 

The following particulars in regard to this noted 
Indian chieftain are taken from a Chicago publica- 
tion of 1889. He was what is called a "good Indian." 
His name is said to mean "built like a bear." He 
is said to have been "nearly a perfect specimen of 
physical development." He was born in 1775, in 
Canada, a grandnephew of Pontiac, and was a con- 
temporary of the celebrated Indians, "Tecumseh, 
Black Hawk, Red Jacket, and Keokuk." Born an 
Ottawa he was brought in 1800, by a hunting party, 
to the Pottawatomie country and married a daugh- 
ter of their principal chief whose village was where 
is now Chicago in Illinois. When forty years of age 
he was the war chief of the two tribes, the Ottawas 
and Pottawatomies. He joined Tecumseh in getting 
up his confederation, and was next to him in com- 
mand at the battle of the Thames, and when Tecum- 
seh fell on that battlefield Shaubenee ordered a retreat. 
That was his first and last battle against the whites. 

For his refusal longer to contend against the whites 
he was deposed as war chief, but continued to be the 
principal peace chief. For some twenty years he was 
"the practical head of the Ottawas, Pottawatomies, and 



THE INDIANS. 31 



Chippewas." When the Indians ceded their Illinois 
lands to the United States they reserved 1,280 acres 
near Paw Paw Grove in Illinois, for Shaubenee, but 
of this rapacious whites "by force and fraud de- 
prived him." 

At length, in 1859, some generous white people 
bought twenty acres of land and built for him a house 
in Grundy County, Illinois, on the south bank of the 
Illinois River, where he died July 17, 1859, being 84 
years of age, "and was buried with imposing cere- 
monies in the cemetery at Morris." While not resid- 
ing in Indiana yet as connected with our Pottawato- 
mies Shaubenee is surely entitled to a place in our 
Indian records. 

Next to this noted Indian chief may be named 
a man of mixed blood — Indian, French, and English 
— whose English name was Alexander Robinson and 
his Indian name Chee-Chee-Bing-Way, translated 
Blinking Eyes, who died at his home on the Des 
Plaines River near Chicago about 1872 (supposed to 
be 104 years of age), for he is claimed to have been 
a head chief among the Pottawatomies. No battle 
deeds of his have been found on record to be re- 
counted here, but as early as 1809 he is found en- 
gaged in taking corn around the south shore of Lake 
Michigan, having become connected with the found- 
er of Bailly Town in the fur trade and then being 
in the service or employ of John Jacob Astor. This 
corn was raised by the Pottawatomies and was taken 
to Chicago for sale and export "in bark woven sacks 
on the backs of ponies." So that we may call this 
Indian chief the first known buyer and exporter of 
corn at what is now that great mart of trade — Chicago. 
In August, 1812, it is said, he was on his way in a 



32 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

canoe, again to buy up corn in Chicago, or at Fort 
Dearborn, when some friendly Miamis hailed him 
from the shore, and warned him not to go to Chicago, 
as "it would storm tomorrow." He left his canoe, 
therefore, at the mouth of the Big Calumet (which is 
in Lake County), and had no part in the "August 
Massacre." He lived the next winter in Indian style 
as a hunter on the Calumet. In 1829 he took a wife 
from the Calumet who was three-fourths Indian blood. 
His headquarters were at Chicago and his journeys 
outward for the purpose of buying fur extended as 
far southward as the Wabash River. 

It is claimed that he, as a Pottawatomie chief, evi- 
dently a trader rather than a warrior, called together 
an Indian council at Chicago in the time of the Black 
Hawk War (1832), and it is said that when, in 1836, 
the great body of this tribe met for the last time in 
Chicago, received their presents, and started for the 
then wild West, this trader chief went with them. But 
like Shaubenee, who also went out to see his people 
settled in their new home, he soon returned and passed 
his last years on the Des Plaines River. 

Mr. J. Hurlburt, a well-known citizen of Porter, 
and afterwards of Lake County, stated several years 
ago, that he was in Chicago at the time of that gather- 
ing of the "red children" in 1836, and that as many as 
ten thousand were supposed to have been then as- 
sembled there, and that it was understood that five 
thousand were Pottawatomies. 

JOHN B. CHAUDONIA. 

The name of another active and influential man may 
properly be placed on this record. 

General Lewis Cass says : "Chautfonia was a half- 



THE INDIANS. 33 



breed Pottawatomie. His uncle, Topenebee, was the 
chief of the tribe, and was an old man of great in- 
fluence." Like Anthony Rollo he was the son of a 
French man and an Indian woman, but unlike him 
there seems no evidence that he received in any true 
sense the religion of the whites among whom for some 
years he lived. General Cass further says of him: 
"He served many years under my orders both in peace 
and war, and in trying circumstances rendered great 
services to the United States. Some of the events of 
his life were almost romantic, and at all times he was 
firm and faithful." 

General Cass says further: "From the commence- 
ment of our difficulties with Great Britain, Chau- 
donia espoused our cause, notwithstanding the exer- 
tions of the British agents to seduce him to their in- 
terests." 

"He was present at the massacre of the garrison of 
Chicago, where I have always understood he saved the 
life of Captain Heald, the commanding officer, and 
the lives of others also." After mentioning his in- 
fluence as exerted in inducing the chief, Topenebee, 
his mother's brother, and other Pottawatomie chiefs, 
to attend the council of Greenville in 1834 held by 
General Harrison and himself, General Cass adds : 
"From Greenville he accompanied me to Detroit, 
* * * and rendered me the most essential service." 

In 1832 Chaudonia was living for a time in La 
Porte County, on a piece of land, section 28, town- 
ship — , range — , "allotted to him by the treaty with 
the Pottawatomie Indians, held on the Tippecanoe 
River, October 26, 1832." 

He afterward became a resident near South Bend 
and there died in 1837. Congress granted in 1847 a 



34 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

section of land to his widow and children "in consid- 
eration of the services rendered 1 ' by him to the United 
States. His name among the Indians, says Charles 
M. Heaton, was Shaderny, which seems to have been 
sometimes written Shadney. Two of his grandsons 
were faithful soldiers on the side of the Union in our 
great Civil War. 

One of them was severely wounded. So there was 
shed in that fierce conflict, not only the blood of 
Americans and of many European nationalities, but 
also Pottawatomie blood from the State of Indiana. 



It is not a part of the design of this historic sketch 
to give the present condition of the Pottawatomies in 
their Western homes, but this record may well be 
made : that their late head chief, Shoughnessee, died 
at his home in Jackson County, Kansas, of quick con- 
sumption, April 7, 1900, and was buried with full In- 
dian rites in his own door-yard. He was considered, 
as a leader, quite conservative. His successor is called 
a more progressive man. 

It is on record somewhere that an old Indian once 
said, "Give me back my forests and my bow, and my 
children shall no more die of a cough." 



CHAPTER III. 



EARLY SETTLERS— 1830-1840. 

According to a report concerning the Public Do- 
main of Indiana and its Survey, made in 1892 by J. 
C. Henderson, then Auditor of State, it appears that 
the eastern portion of a strip of land, ten miles in 
breadth, from north to south, across Indiana, was 
purchased from the Pottawatomies at Chicago, at a 
treaty made there August 29, 1821 ; and that the west- 
ern portion of the strip, the southern boundary line of 
which just touched Lake Michigan in what is now 
Lake County, was purchased when a treaty was made 
October 16, 1826, at Mississinewa. The line marking 
the south boundary of this purchase is known in some 
early descriptions of land as the "ten mile line. ,, The 
north boundary line of Indiana is exactly ten miles 
north of an east and west line that barely cuts the 
most southern limit of Lake Michigan. 

It is a question with some what is the real north 
boundary of Lake and Porter counties. The State 
boundary is the following, according to the Constitu- 
tion, Article XIV., Section 1. "On the east by the 
meridian line which forms the western boundary of 
the State of Ohio ; 'on the south by the Ohio River, 
from the mouth of the Great Miami River to the 
mouth of the Wabash River; on the west, 
by a line drawn along the middle of the 
Wabash River, from its mouth to a point 
where a due north line, drawn from the town of Vin- 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



cennes would last touch the northwestern shore of 
said Wabash River, and thence by a due north line, 
until the same shall intersect an east and west line 
drawn through a point ten miles north of the southern 
extreme of Lake Michigan ; on the north, by said east 
and west line until the same shall intersect the first- 
mentioned meridian line which forms the western 
boundary of the State of Ohio." 

Another treaty was made with the Indians October 
2j y 1832, on the Tippecanoe River, made between 
Jonathan Jennings, J. W. Davis, and Marks Crume, 
Commissioners for the United States, "and the Chiefs 
and Warriors of the Pottawatomies on the part of said 
Pottawatomies," in accordance with which treaty the 
United States bought all the remaining land of these 
Indians in Indiana, also lands in Michigan Territory 
and in Illinois. This treaty was signed by the United 
States Commissioners and by fifty-one Indians. To 
each Indian name on the treaty there is attached the 
expression "his mark," for these children of the forests 
and the prairies, chiefs, warriors, head men of their 
tribe, were as ignorant of writing as were once the 
noblemen of England in those old days when the 
phrase originated, "benefit of clergy." By the terms 
of this treaty the Indians were to receive, as soon as 
possible after the treaty was signed, $32,000 in mer- 
chandise of some kind, $15,000 a year for twelve years, 
and some other amounts. The Commissioners say 
that at the request of the Indians, after the treaty was 
signed, $2,700 was applied to purchase horses for 
them, which the Commissioners say were immediately 
purchased and delivered. What price was paid for 
horses at that time does not appear in the record, but 
perhaps this sum was sufficient to buy a horse, at least 



EARLY SETTLERS. 87 



a pony, for every man that signed the treaty. There 
then remained, due to the Indians, $29,300, the Com- 
missioners say, to be paid in merchandise, but how 
that was expended they do not mention. This treaty 
having been sanctioned by the Senate was confirmed 
by President Jackson, January 21, 1833.* 

According to the usage of our Government the In- 
dian title to this region was now extinguished, the sec- 
ond third of the century was soon to begin, and the 
land was ready for the coming of the pioneer settlers. 

The American Fur Company, John Jacob Astor, 
President, kept an open communication between De- 
troit and Chicago. Steadily westward and also north- 
ward, the pioneers were pushing along their advanced 
guards, some settlers as early as 1821 having reached 
the locality where is now Indianapolis. The Wabash 
Valley was settled. Fruit trees were planted. Peaches 
and then apples soon grew in that rich valley; and 
then into North-Western Indiana the pioneers came. 

In 1800 there were found to be in Indiana Territory, 
as its white population, 5,640, or (American Cyclo- 
pedia) 4,651, or (Colton) 4,875; about five thousand. 
In 1810 there were 24,520. In 1820, 147,178. In 1830, 
341,582. But of this number in 1830, 3,562 were free 
blacks. Into the W^est as well as into the South the 
blacks have gone along with the early white settlers. 
(Some one once observed that the first white man who 
settled at Chicago was a negro.) In 1820 only fifty- 
one Indiana counties had been organized, and Wa- 
bash County had an area then of 8,000 square miles 
with 147 inhabitants. Delaware County had an area 

*A copy of this treaty, with the signatures, as sent out 
by General Jackson, I had the opportunity of examining 
in the office of Hon. T. J. Wood, of Crown Point. T. H. B. 



38 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

of 5,400 square miles. Darby's Universal Gazetteer of 
1826, from which these areas are taken, says : "In a 
review, however, of the settled parts of Indiana, the 
counties of Wabash and Delaware with the adjacent 
Indian country ought to be excluded," the entire area 
of the three divisions being 20,022 square miles. "The 
actually inhabited section of Indiana, 57 the Gazetteer 
says, "will be restricted to 13,972, say 14,000 square 
miles." This was in 1826. Of what was then called 
the "Indian country," area 6,622 square miles, more 
than one-half was in Northern Indiana. 

The first white settlers, who came to bring civiliza- 
tion and Christianity, commerce and manufactures, 
art, science, and literature, into* this corner of the 
State, began to come in 1830 and 183 1, a very few as 
early as 1829, before the land, to any extent, was pur- 
chased from the Indians ; and for some ten years, until 
the last land north of the Kankakee was put upon 
the market, in 1839, pioneer settlers continuing to 
come in, the proper Indian period and the period of 
white occupancy were blended together. It is evident 
that until 1833, except on the ten mile purchase, the 
first white settlers were intruders upon Indian hunting 
grounds and gardens and cornfields; and for some 
years after 1833 the Pottawatomies still lingered 
among their long-cherished and delightful camping 
places. They were in no haste to leave ; and although 
the large body of them, perhaps five thousand, left the 
State in 1836, some hundreds still remained among 
us, many even until 1840. We have therefore a period 
of ten years, from 1830 to 1840, of Indian and white 
life mingled. While in those years, among the pioneer 
families there were some privations, some hardships, 
yet those ten years of frontier life were years of a 



EARLY SETTLERS. 39 



rich, delightful experience, enjoyed very fully by a 
few hundred families where savage life was ending and 
civilizations beginning, and which by those thus en- 
joying cannot be forgotten. In this age of steam and 
electricity in which we live such a frontier life cannot 
be again. 

It may be well to look over the records and see 
who were some of the first settlers, the true pioneers 
of North- Western Indiana. To give all their names, 
were it possible, would be decidedly impracticable, for 
on the Claim Register of Lake County, including the 
western part of Porter County, are nearly five hundred 
signatures. It is evident, therefore, that between 
1829 and 1839 many hundreds of families came into 
the three counties lying north of the Kankakee; and 
many certainly, in those years, settled in Pulaski and 
White and Jasper. Of the comparatively few names 
that will here be given probably some are not cor- 
rectly written. 

There has been found as the name of the first set- 
tler in what became W T hite County, coming in the 
spring of 1829, Jacob Thompson, who died near 
Reynolds in 1875 > an d, as tne second settler, Ben- 
jamin Reynolds is named, who came from Ohio ; and 
then George A. Spencer, also in 1829. The next pio- 
neers, perhaps not in that year, were Jerry Bisher, 
Robert Rothrock, George R. Bartley, Peter Price; 
and then many others from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and 
from Kentucky ; also some Norwegians, among them 
Peter B. Smith and H. E. Hiorth, who settled and 
named the village called Norway on the Tippecanoe 
River. 

In what became Pulaski County there were very 
few, if any, whites till 1830, and most of the families 
now there came in after 1850. 



40 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

For that County the following names of early citi- 
zens have been recorded: "James Justice, Eli and 
Peter Demoss, and Thomas McMany, in the north- 
east; T. J. Galbrith, Henry White, Robert Scott, 
Moses L. Washburn, and W T illiam Fisher in the 
south; John Rees, Michael Stump, Silas Phillips, 
Lewis McCoy, A. E. Moore, and John M. Cowan, in 
the western part ; and John Davenport, Andrew Keys, 
John Peirson, George P. Perry, H. W. Hornbeck, 
Tilman Hackett, and Benjamin Ballinger, in the more 
central sections."* 

The settlers of Pulaski came from Ohio, from older 
counties in Indiana, some from the South, some from 
Pennsylvania, a few from New England and New 
York, some from Great Britain, and, as later settlers, 
many Germans. 

In regard to settling the prairie the same practice 
prevailed here as in Lake County, that "as a general 
thing," some exceptions may have been, "the home- 
steads were located in or near the timbered lands, 
the large prairies being left unsettled until a consider- 
able advance had been made in the way of improve- 
ments." 

The first settlers in the central parts of what became 
Jasper County are said to have been George Gulp and 
Thomas Randle from Virginia. They came and ex- 
amined some localities in 1834. The United States 
survey had just been made and a surveyor directed 
them to the "Forks" of the Iroquois. It is stated that 
they found no settlement west of the present Pulaski 
County line, but that traveling on the "Allen Trail" 
they came to William Donahoe's, who had just settled 
near the present Francesville. 

♦Historical Atlas of Indiana. 



EARLY SETTLERS. 41 



They went on to the rapids of the Iroquois and to 
the mouth of the Pinkamink. They seem to have been 
pleased with the locality, for in May, 1835, they settled 
at what became known as "the Forks." In the sum- 
mer of 1836 there followed them as pioneer men with 
their families John G. Parkison and Henry Barkley, 
also with them came the widow of Simon Kenton, a 
noted Kentucky pioneer. Her daughter, then John 
G. Parkison's wife, was said to have been the first 
white child born at the present city of Cincinnati. 
This may, it may not be true. Mrs. Kenton died in 
Jasper County about 1848. Her age is not recorded. 

Other families followed these: "Reeds, Prices, 
Casads, Burgets, Guthridges, Reeves, and Shanna- 
hans"* Soon another settlement was made on the 
Iroquois and a third where is now Rensselaer. 

Those making this third settlement were John 
Nowels, with a young son, David, and a young daugh- 
ter, and a son-in-law, Joseph D. Yeoman and family. 
They came with an ox team, as did many other fami- 
lies, arriving in the fall of 1836, according to the 
statements in the "Historical Atlas/' A date two 
years earlier will be found in the history of the town of 
Rensselaer. William Mallatt soon became a neighbor 
to Joseph D. Yeoman, but on his claim was afterward 
laid an "Indian float." 

One of his daughters, Margaret Mallatt, is called 
the first white child born in Jasper County, and Mary 
Mallatt is said to have been the first young bride. 

The names of other pioneers in this county will be 
found in other connections. 

In that part of Jasper, which in i860 became New- 



♦Historical Atlas of Indiana. 



42 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

ton County, hunters and trappers for some time were 
roaming among the Indians. At length a few "squat- 
ters" came, and then some permanent settlers. The 
first names found are Josiah Dunn and John Elliott 
as settlers in 1832. About the same time settlements 
were made by James W. Lacy, W. Spitler, Zacharias 
Spitler, James Cuppy, Jacob Prout, John Mayers, 
Bruce Dunn, and Matthias Redding. About 1837 
came Jacob, Samuel, and Frederick Kenyon, Charles 
Anderson, Amos Clark, and, in 1838, James Murphy. 
Still later settlers were James Elijah, John Darret, 
David Kustler, Daniel Deardorf, Benjamin Rood- 
nick, and Silas Johnson. Says the Historical Atlas : 
"These settlers found innumerable deer and turkeys in 
the woods and prairies, and wild bees were so plentiful 
that an abundant supply of honey was at the com- 
mand of any one who cared to exert himself a little to 
procure it/' 

Settlements were made on the north, on the east, 
and on the south of what, in 1850, became Starke 
County, earlier than in that rather small area of wet 
land, some sand ridges, and of, what was called some 
years ago, "comparative inaccessibility." 

Edward Smith, from England, is called the first set- 
tler in what is now Oregon Township in 1835. John 
Lindley was the first settler in North Bend Township, 
and others, called early settlers were John Tibbits, 
Nathan Koontz, and Samuel Koontz. Starke County 
was not organized until 1850, so but little of its his- 
tory belongs to the pioneer or early settler times. 

In the other three counties, La Porte, Porter, and 
Lake, many more names have been found. 

The first family credited as settling in La Porte 
County bore the name of Benedict. Mrs. Miriam 



EARLY SETTLERS. 43 



Benedict, widow of Stephen S. Benedict, with six 
sens and one daughter, and Henly Clyburn, husband 
of the daughter, on March 15, 1829, made a settlement 
not far northwest from the present town of Westville. 
July 16, 1829, was born in this pioneer home among 
the Indians Elizabeth Miriam Clyburn, the first white 
child born in what became La Porte County. 

In April of this same year, near this locality, a few 
miles south of the Ten Mile Purchase, settled Samuel 
Johnson, William Eahart, and Jacob Inglewright; 
also Charles and James Whittaker, and W. H. Shirley. 
About seven miles distant from the Benedict and Cly- 
burn locality, in the same year, settled Adam Keith 
and family and Louis Shirley with his mother; and 
here, in October, 1829, was born the first white boy 
in La Porte County, according to the traditions, Keith 
Shirley. 

Settlers in 1830 — John S. Garroutte. 

Richard Harris. Andrew Shaw. 

Philip Fail. John Sissany. 

Aaron Stanton. William Garrison. 

Benajah Stanton. William Adams. 

William Clark. Joseph Osborne. 

Andrew Smith. Daniel Jessup. 

John Wills and sons. Nathan Haines. 

Charles Wills. Richard Harris. 

Daniel Wills. George Thomas. 

John E. Wills. William Stule. 

October 30th of this year was born Benajah S. Fail, 
son of Philip Fail, called by some the first white boy 
born in La Porte County. 

Settlers in 1831 — 

Rolling Prairie settlement commenced May 25th 
by David Stoner, Arthur Irving, Jesse West, E. Pro- 



44 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

volt, and Willets. Other families came later in 

the year, among them the Harvey, Salisbury, and 
Whitehead families, also those of Daniel Murray, 
James Hiley, Jacob Miller, John Garrett, Emery 
Brown, C. W. Brown, James Drummond, Benjamin 
De Witt, Dr. B. C. Bowell, J. Austin, Ludlow Bell, 
and Myron Ives.* This soon became a noted settle- 
ment. 

Other settlers in different neighborhoods: James 
Highley, James Webster, Judah Learning, Abram 
Cormack, Daniel Griffin; Horace Markham, Lane 
Markham, on Mill Creek; Thomas Stillwell, giving 
name to Stillwell Prairie ; Alden Tucker ; Charles W. 
Cathcart, giving name to a beautiful grove; also the 
Ball, Blake, Landon, Wheeler, Bond, Fravel, Staneon, 
and Garwood families, and Joseph Pagin and Wilson 
Malone. Most of these earliest families as was nat- 
ural, made their settlements on that strip of land, ten 
miles in width, which had already been purchased from 
the Indians, although some settled south of that line 
on unpurchased Indian lands. 

Settlers of 1832 — 
Isham Campbell. Elijah Brown. 

Andrew Richardson. A. M. Jessup. 

Edmund Richardson. Silas Hale. 

John Dunn. Oliver Closson. 

Josiah Bryant. John Brown. 

Jeremiah Sherwood. Charles Vail. 

Jonathan Sherwood. W. A. Place. 

George Campbell. A. Blackburn. 

John Broadhead. Bird McLane. 

Peter White. John McLane. 

♦For these names and many others I am indebted to the 
"History of La Porte County." T. H. B. 



EARLY SETTLERS. 



45 



Erastus Quivey. 
Joseph Wheaton. 



S. Aldrich. 
Charles Ives. 
John Hazleton. 

Settlers of 1833 — 
John Talbott. 
Brainard Goff. 
S. James. 
G. W. Barnes. 
Shubel Smith. 
W. Goit. 
R. Miller. 
H. Cathcart. 
Elmore Pattee. 
Joseph Orr. 
Jacob R. Hall. 

F. Reynolds. 
Joseph Starrett. 
Jesse Willett. 
Jesse West. 
Nimrod West. 
J. Gallion. 
J. Clark. 
John Wilson. 
Asa Owen. 

A. Harvey. 

B. Butterworth. 
H. Griffith. 
J. Griffith. 

G. Rose. 
John Lnther. 

Other names of early settlers in La Porte County 
will be found among the records of their Old Settlers' 
Association. 

Something singular is connected with the name 



John Beaty. 
N. Stul. 
W. Niles. 
John Osborn. 
L. Maulsby. 
L. Reynolds. 
T. Robinson. 
R. Prother, 
R. Williams. 
Peter Burch. 
W. Burch. 
Ira Burch. 
W. O'Hara. 
M. O'Hara. 
Samuel O'Hara. 
Edward O'Hara. 
J. Perkins. 
Isaac Johnson. 
W. Lavin. 
S. Lavin. 
John Winchell. 
John Vail. 
Henry Vail. 
J. Travis. 
Curtis Travis. 



46 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

.Lykins. After detailing the supposed facts of the first 
settlement of Hudson Township, and naming as the 
first or one of the first settlers, Joseph W. Lykins, a 
Welshman, "connected with the Carey Mission,' " 
who settled there in 1829, General Packard mentions 
as one of the settlers in Wills Township in 1830 Joseph 
Lykins, and at length says : "During this year (1834) 
Joseph Lykins put up the first frame house that was 
erected in Wills." That this man was a Welshman 
he does not say. 

If all the statements are correct there must have 
been near the northeast corner of La Porte County 
three men by the name of Lykins — Johnston Lykins, 
born in Ohio ; Joseph W. Lykins, from Wales, and 
Joseph Lykins, presumably an American. 

The statements in regard to the first rest on docu- 
mentary evidence in missionary publications that can- 
not be questioned. The statements in regard to Jo- 
seph and Joseph W. rest upon the memories of the 
early settlers from whom General Packard obtained 
information. 

It is not probable any one is living now who 
knows anything of that frame house built in 1834. 

In what became Porter County, with the excep- 
tion of the French trader, Joseph Bailly, who will be 
elsewhere mentioned, who, in the employ of John 
Jacob Astor, is said to have made a home on the 
Calumet River with his Indian wife in 1822, settle- 
ments seem not to have commenced until the stage 
line from Detroit to Fort Dearborn or Chicago was 
opened in 1833. In that year three brothers — Vir- 
ginians, Jesse, William, and Isaac Morgan — made set- 
tlements and gave name to one of the small, rich 
prairies of the county. In April ' of the same year 



EARLY SETTLERS. 47 



came from Ohio Henry S. Adams with his mother, 
his wife, and three daughters ; and in June George 
Cline, Adam S. Campbell from New York, and Rea- 
son Bell from Ohio. Also Jacob Fleming, Ruel 
Starr, and Seth Hull. 

The following are found as the names of early set- 
tlers in the northwestern part of the county. Some of 
these names may be found repeated in the following 
lists : 

For the year 1834, Jacob Wolf and three sons — 
John, Jacob E., and Josephus ; Barrett Door ; Reu- 
ben Hurlburt and sons — William, Henry, Jacob, 
David, and Griffith ; R. and W. Parrott ; and, a year or 
so later, S. P. Robbins, B. and Allen Jones, and the 
following whose given names have not been found : 
Blake, Peak, Sumner, Ritter, Harrison, Curtis, Smith, 
Arnold, McCool, and T. J. Field. The names Twenty- 
Mile Prairie and Twenty-Mile Grove, were given to 
the localities in that part of the county. Not that the 
prairie or the strip of woodland, in which grove for 
a time black squirrels abounded, extended for twenty 
miles, but they were twenty miles distant from some- 
where. In that locality these family names remained 
for many years and some still remain. 

The following lists of names are arranged accord- 
ing to the years of settlement, but perfect accuracy 
cannot be claimed for tnem all, as the authorities were 
evidently not perfectly accurate. But care has been 
taken in making corrections and perfecting as nearly 
as was practicable the entire list. 

Settlers in 1834 — 
Thomas A. E. Campbell. Levi Jones. 
Benjamin McCarty. Selah Wallace. 

Theodore Jones. C. A. Ballard. 



48 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



Joseph Bartholomew. 
William Frame. 
Benjamin Spencer. 
Miller Parker. 
J. Sherwood. 
Jacob Shultz. 
John Shultz. 
Owen Crumpacker. 
W. Downing. 
Jerry Todhunter. 
John J. Foster. 

Abbott. 

McCoy. 



William Thomas. 
John Hageman. 
William Coleman. 
Pressley Warwick. 
John Bartholomew. 
Stephen Bartholomew. 
J. P. Ballard. 
A. K. Paine. 
Jesse Johnston. 
Thomas Gossett. 
William Gossett. 
Theophilus Crumpacker. 
Jerry Bartholomew. 
Jacob Beck. 

In this year was born January nth the first white 
child in the county, Reason Bell, and the second on 
February nth, Hannah Morgan. 

Settlers in 1835 — 

Baum. 



Putnam Robbins. 
David Hughart. 
E. P. Cole. 
Hazard Sheffield. 
Allen B. James. 
G. W. Patton. 

Baum. 

Jesse Johnson, the first in Boone Township. 



George Z. Salyer. 
David Oaks. 
Alanson Finney. 
Henry Stoner. 
Abraham Stoner. 



N. S. Fairchild. 
Archie De Munn. 
Charles Allen. 
Josiah Allen. 
Lewis Cooner. 
Thomas Adams. 

Settlers in 1836 — 
Simeon Bryant. 



Thomas Clark. 
Peter Ritter. 
W. Calhoun. 
John Jones. 
David Bryant. 



Thomas- Dinwiddie. 



EARLY SETTLERS. 



49 



Orris Jewett. 
Solomon Dilley. 
James Dilley. 
Absalom Morris. 
Isaac Cornell. 
John Moore. 
William Bissell. 
John W. Dinwiddie. 
A. D. McCord. 

Settlers from 1836 to 1838— 
John Oliver. James Dye. 



Thomas Johnson. 
William Johnson. 
Jesse Johnson. 
Jennings Johnson. 
Joseph Laird. 
George Eisley. 
John Prim. 
Frederick Wineinger. 
Hu£'h Dinwiddie. 



Barkley Oliver. 
Daniel Kisler. 
T. C. Sweeney. 
David Dinwiddie. 
Amos Andrews. 
T. W. Palmer. 
James Hildreth. 
Casper Brooks. 
Smith. 



Dr. Griffin. 
John Dillingham. 
Abram Snodgrass. 
Asa Zone. 
Ira Biggs. 
F. Wolf. 
John White. 
John Safford. 
S. Olinger. 



Early settlers, date not found — 
Samuel Van Dalsen. John Berry. 

Abraham Van Dalsen. Elisha Adkins. 
Lyman Adkins. Enoch Billings. 

R. Blachley. Eli Cain. 

Charles De Wolf. John E. Harris. 

Morris Wisham. Ezra Wilcox. 

T. Wilkins. Eason Wilcox. 

W. Billings. H. Blanchard. 

There. died in Hebron, March 5, 1900, an aged 
woman, 88 years of age, known as Grandma Folsom, 
whose husband, a pensioner of the War of 1812, died 
some years ago. The year of their settlement is not 



50 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

known, but she was called about the last of the early 
settlers in a neighborhood east of Hebron called Yan- 
kee Town. 

The names of early settlers of Cake County are 
taken from the history of that County by T. H. Ball, 
known as "Lake County, 1872," to distinguish it from 
"Lake County, 1884." 

According to the records of Solon Robinson there 
was a settler by the name of Ross in the summer of 
1834, on section 6, township 35, range 7, and in 1884 
James Hill, of Creston, a man of sterling weight of 
character, stated at the semi-centennial celebration of 
Lake County, that in February of 1834 he was looking 
over what became Lake County, and here saw William 
Ross, whom he had known in Decatur County, In- 
diana, as a settler here then with his family. So> that 
there is placed here as the name of the first farmer 
settler of Lake County, not counting those two or 
three stage-tavern keepers on the beach of Lake Mich- 
igan, and as the date of settlement, 1833, William 
Ross. 

For the summer of 1834 there are the names of 
"William Crooks and Samuel Miller in company, Tim- 
ber and Mill Seat." Also in the same summer, a man 
by the name of Winchell commenced a mill near the 
mouth of Turkey Creek, which he did not complete. 
William B. Crooks, mentioned above, was from Mont- 
gomery County, was located on the same section 
with William Ross, and became one of the first asso- 
ciate judges in Lake County, elected in 1837. The 
Claim Register is now the authority. 

Settlers in 1834 — 
In October — Thomas Childers. 



EARLY SETTLERS. 51 



In November — Solon Robinson, Lumm A. Fowler 

and Robert Wilkinson, on Deep River. 
In December — Jesse Pierce and David Pierce, on 

Deep River and Turkey Creek, says the Claim 

Register. 

Settlers in 1835 — 
January — Lyman Wells and John Driscoll. 
February— J. W. Holton, W. A. W. Holton, Will- 
iam Clark and family, from Jennings County. 
March — Richard Fancher and Robert Wilkinson, the 

latter on W^est Creek from Attica ^Spring," Elias 

Bryant, E. W. Bryant, Nancy Agnew, widow, and 

J. Wiggins. 
May — Elias Myrick, William Myrick, Thomas Reid, 

S. P. Stringham, Vermillion, Ills., and Aaron Cox. 
June — Peter Stainbrook. 
November — David Hornor, Thomas Hornor, Jacob 

L. Brown, Thomas Wiles, Jesse Bond, and Milo 

Robinson. 
December — John Wood, Henry Wells, William S. 

Thornburg, R. Dunham, R. Hamilton, and John 

G. Forbes. 

Settlers in 1836 — 
William A. Purdy, New York. 
Elisha Chapman, Michigan City. 
S. Havilance, Canada. 
William N. Sykes. 
David Campbell. 
W. Williams, La Porte. 
Benjamin Joslen. 
John Ball. 

Richard Church, Michigan. 
Darling Church, Michigan. 
Leonard Cutler, Michigan. 



52 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Charles Cutler, Michigan. 

B. Rhodes, La Porte. 

J. Rhodes, La Porte. 

Jacob Van Valkenburg, New York. 

James S. Castle, Michigan City. 

Hiram Nordyke, sen., Tippecanoe. 

Charles H. Paine, Ohio. 

Hiram Nordyke, Jr., Tippecanoe County. 

Joseph C. Batton, Boone County. 

James Knickerbocker, New York. 

John T. Knickerbocker. 

G. C. Woodbridge. 

H. Bones. 

John J. Van Valkenburg. 

Horace Taylor. 

S. D. Bryant. 

Daniel E. Bryant. 

Peter Barnard. 

Jonathan Brown. 

E. J. Robinson. 
David Fowler. 
Cyrus Danforth. 

M. Pierce, State of New York. 

Sprague Lee, Pennsylvania. 

John A. Bothwell, Vermont. 

Peleg S. Mason. 

Adonijah Taylor, 'Timber and Outlet." 

The last according to Claim Register, "May 15th." 
John Cole, New York. 

F. A. Halbrook, New York. 
Stephen Mix, New York. 
Silas Clough, New York. 
Rufus Norton, Canada. 
Elijah Morton, Vermont. 



EARLY SETTLERS. 



53 



Francis Barney. 
Hiram Holmes. 
Samuel Halsted, "Timber and Millseat." 

"Nov. 29th transferred to James M. Whitney and 
Mark Burroughs for $212." 
Calvin Lilley, South Bend. 
Samuel Hutchins, La Porte. 
Jacob Nordyke, Tippecanoe. 
Hiram S. Pelton, New York. 
Ithamar Cobb. 

J. P. Smith, New York,— settled July 5thr 
Twelve — Dressier. 
G. Zuver, Bartholomew County. 
H. McGee. 

Henry Farmer, Bartholomew County. 
William S. Hunt, "blacksmith," Wayne County. 



George Parkinson. 
S. Wilson. 
James Farwell. 
Abel Farwell. 
Carlos Farwell. 
M. C. Farwell. 
Henry Hornor. 
Ruth Barney, widow. 
J. V. Johns. 
James Anderson. 
E. W. Centre. 
Simeon Beedle. 
Isaac M. Beedle. 
William Wells. 
S. D. Wells. 
W. W. Centre. 
T. M. Dustin. 
E. Dustin, Jr. 



C. L. Greenman. 
Charles Marvin. 
Mercy Perry, widow. 
Peter Selpry. 
Jacob Mendenhall. 
H. M. Beedle. 

B. Rich. 

D. Y. Bond. 

S. L. Hodgman. 
John Kitchel. 
Henry A. Palmer. 
Paul Palmer. 
H. Edgarton. 
D. Barney. 
William Hodson. 
George Earle. 
Jackson Cady. 
A. Hitchcock. 



54 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



E. H. Hitchcock. 
O. Hitchcock. 
Russell Eddy. 

C. Carpenter. 
William Brown. 
R. S. Witherel. 
Charles Walton. 
William Farmer. 
Jonathan Gray. 
Nathan D. Hall. 

Settlers in 1837- 
James Westbrook. 
Samuel Sigler. 
John Bothwell. 
John Brown. 
Henry Torrey. 
S. Hodgman. 
Joseph Batton. 
John Kitchel. 
N. Hayden. 
H. R. Nichols. 
N. Cochrane. 
A. Baldwin. 
Lewis Warriner. 
Josiah Chase. 
E. T. Fish. 
Charles R. Ball. 
John Fish. 
Hervey Ball. 
George Flint. 
Lewis Manning. 
Benjamin Farley. 
Ephraim Cleveland. 

D. R. Stewart. 



Edward Greene. 
S. T. Greene. 
Elisha Greene. 
W. Page. 
R. Wilder. 
John McLean. 
Solomon Russell. 
Daniel May. 
A. Albee. 



William Sherman. 
H. Galespie. 
J. H. Martin. 
John Hack. 
T. Sprague. 
G. L. Zabriska. 
J. Hutchinson. 
John Hutchinson. 
E. L. Palmer. 
Lewis Swaney. 
N. Reynolds. 
Francis Swaney. 
B. Demon. 
O. V. Servis. 
Joel Benton. 
Thomas O'Brien. 
John L. Ennis. 
Orrin Smith. 
Dennis Donovan. 
D. B. Collings. 
Patrick Donovan. 
Z. Collings. 
Thomas Donovan. 



EARLY SETTLERS. 



55 



Timothy Rockwell. 

Daniel Donovan. 

Jesse Cross. 

Oliver Fuller. 

E. Cross. 

Thomas Tindal. 

R. Cross. 

Orrin Dorwim 

A. L. Ball. 

H. Severns. 

Daniel Bryant. 

Hiram Barnes. 

Wid. Elizabeth Owens. 

Bartlett Woods. 

E. D. Owens. 

Charles Woods. 

X. Pierce. 



Dudley Merrill. 
William Vangorder. 
J. F. Follett. 
G. W. Hammond. 
A. D. Foster. 
J. Rhodes. 
Adam Sanford. 
Joseph Jackson. 
Charles Mathews. 
O. Higbee. 
James Carpenter. 
Z. W^oodford. 
Jacob Ross. 
William Hobson. 
Patrick Doyle. 
P. Anson. 
W. J. Richards. 



56 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

In addition to the above from the Claim Register 
may be added, for December 10, 1836, the name of 
Benjamin D. Glazier, who then settled at Merrill- 
ville, or Wiggins' Point, where some of the family 
still reside. Also for 1837, the name of John Hack, 
the first German settler, who, with his large family, 
settled in the spring near the present town of St. John. 
Many of his descendants now reside in or near Crown 
Point. And the names of Peter Orte, Michael Adler, 
and M. Reder, German settlers, with their families in 
1838; who commenced that large Catholic settle- 
ment in what is now St. John's Township; and also 
in 1838, H. Sasse, Senior, H. Von Hollen, and Lewis 
Herlitz, the first Lutheran Germans, who were fol- 
lowed by many others in what is" now Hanover Town- 
ship. 

These German immigrants that in those early 
years came into the different localities of our eight 
counties from their fatherland, while they could 
scarcely then have heard 61 Mrs. Hemans of England, 
yet soon learned the meaning of what she wrote in 
her beautiful "Song of Emigration" : 

"We will rear new homes, under trees that glow 
As if gems were the fruitage of every bough ; 
O'er our white walls we will train the vine, 
And sit in its shadow at day's decline ; 
And watch our herds as they range at will 
Through the green savannahs, all bright and still. 

All, all our own shall the forests be, 

As to the bound of the roe-buck free ! 

None shall say, 'Hither, no further pass !' 

We will track each step through the wavy grass ; 

We will chase the elk in his speed and might, 

And bring proud spoils to the hearth at night." 



EARLY SETTLERS. 57 



Perhaps their women may at first have felt, what 
Mrs. Heman's puts for them into her song, 

"But oh! the gray church tower, 
And the sound of the Sabbath-bell, 
And the sheltered garden-bower, 
We have bid them all farewell !" 

Whatever some of them may have felt they soon 
here made new homes, apparently, with no regrets. 
The women and girls soon had their beautiful flower 
grounds, and all, Catholic and Lutheran alike, had 
their chapels and churches and bells. 

Instead of chasing the elk the boys found plenty 
of deer and wolves to chase, and some of them made 
good hunters in our woods.* 

Many pioneer families came^ into Lake County in 
the years of 1838 and 1839, but their names were not 
found on the Claim Register as its entries did not ex- 
tend over these years, and it would be quite imprac- 
ticable to collect many of these names now. 

In placing these few "hundred names upon this 
record as pioneers in Nortn-Western Indiana the 
names of men who came, for the most part, with their 
women and children, into this then wild region, it is 
recognized that there were also many others whose 
names, by some means, have not reached these pages, 
who were also true and worthy pioneers, doing well 
their part in laying here the foundations for the pros- 



*It was my lot to spend one night in August, 1838, at 
the home of the large Hack family on "Prairie West," and 
after "the shades of night" had fallen the family assembled 
in their door-yard, around a cheerful blaze, and sang the 
songs of their old homes. They were from one of those 
Rhine provinces that passed from France to Germany, then 
Prussia, and those old songs were new and strange to my 
young ears. T. H. B. 



58 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

perity which we now enjoy; and their descendants 
who may not find their names on these few pages, 
will surely see the impossibility of any one's now se- 
curing every name of the settlers between 1830 and 
1840, and also they may be sure that to the whole 
body of our pioneers, the known and the unknown, 
every rightminded person must Teel that, as this cen- 
tury closes, we owe a large debt of grateful remem- 
brance. 

Many of the "squatter" families, indeed very many, 
passed in a few years to the regions further west 
(these were of a restless class, people who loved fron- 
tier life), and there as here helped to prepare the way 
for the railroad life, the modern life, of this our day. 
They followed the Indians and the deer toward the 
setting sun, they tried the large western prairies, and 
the mountain region, and at last the Pacific slope, but 
the railroads followed them along, and they rest now 
where the steam whistles blow but do not disturb 
their slumbers. 

Note. — From evidence of different varieties it is con- 
cluded that fully one-half of the early settlers passed out 
of Lake County between 1840 and 1850. 



TREATIES AND SURVEYS. 
In 1818 a treaty with tEe Indians was made at St. 
Mary's in accordance with which a large tract of land 
in central Indiana was purchased and this included at 
its northern limit what became White County and a 
part of Jasper. By the terms of another treaty made 
in 1826 quite a portion of what became Pulaski 
County was purchased. Some surveys were made in 
these purchases in 1821 and 1828, but as early as 1821 
only a small part of the southeast' corner of Pulaski 



EARLY SETTLERS. 59 



was surveyed. As elsewhere stated the eastern part of 
the ten-mile strip was purchased in 1821 and the 
western part in 1826. This narrow strip was surveyed, 
the larger part in 1829, and the extreme eastern por- 
tion in 1830. The purchase made in 1832, at Tippe- 
canoe, was surveyed in 1834. Men employed in this 
survey were, Burnside, Sibley, Clark, Smith, Biggs, 
Van Ness, Hanna, Goodnow, Morris, Kent. 



LAND SALES. 

Land sales were held at Crawfordsville for White 
County in 1829, 1830, and in October, 1832. The 
Ten-Mile purchase was also offered for sale in 1832. 
For Pulaski County, land sales were held at Wina- 
mac in September, 1838, in March, 1839, and in 
March, 1841. Indian Creek Township was one of the 
earliest settled parts of that county. It contained 
some twenty families in 1840. 

The lands of Lake County came into market in 
1839. The land office was at La Porte. It was after- 
wards removed to Winamac, where Lake County set- 
tlers at length went to enter land, finding a place to 
cross the Kankakee, passing through a wet region, 
and going by the White-post. It was considered a 
trying horseback trip. 

There were land sales also at Logansport in Octo- 
ber, 183 1, according to General Packard's history, 
when the "Michigan Road Lands," on which the 
city of La Porte now stands, were sold and bought. 

In 1832 there were land sales at La Fayette. Land 
in La Porte County was bought this year, and there 
being then no pre-emption law, speculators, those 
ruthless men, overbid the settlers. Says General 



60 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Packard : 'This occurred in many instances where the 
settlers had expended all their means in making im- 
provements. Much of the land thus situated and lo- 
cated in New Durham, went as high as five and six 
dollars per acre." The settlers were not prepared to 
pay but one dollar and a quarter 1 per acre. Before the 
land sales of 1839 the citizens of Lake County had 
organized a Squatters' Union in which they bound 
themselves to stand by each other in purchasing their 
land at the government price. The second article of 
their constitution said, "That if Congress should neg- 
lect or refuse to pass a law, before the land on which 
we live is offered for sale, which shall secure to us our 
rights, we will hereafter adopt such measures as may 
be necessary effectually to secure each other in our 
just claims." And they did this. Speculators did not 
bid against five hundred united, determined, and prob- 
ably armed men. 

In Porter County lands came into market in 1835. 



CHAPTER IV. 1830 to 1840. 



What These Early Settlers Found — Pre-Historic 
and Historic Man. 

By prehistoric in this chapter is not meant, before 
human history on the earth commenced; that early 
Asiatic, African, and European written history, so 
many thousand pages of which yet remain; but only 
before 1 the real American written history finds its sure 
beginning, dating no further back than to the dis- 
covery of America by Christopher Columbus. Prehis- 
toric in this chapter, will denote not only any traces of 
man up to 1492, but even up to the time of the first 
recorded explorations of French and English in this 
region. So that, to reach our prehistoric period, we 
will not need to go far back in time. 

The early settlers first found the Indians, called 
sometimes aborigines, in actual possession here, with 
whom, for some ten years, more or less, they were 
brought in contact ; but they soon found, as they came 
out from the "thick woods," as they looked over the 
rich and beautiful prairies, and then over the low- 
lands and marshes, and viewed the rivers, — here and 
there not to be mistaken, they found those singular 
traces of an unknown people, called sometimes the 
Moundbuilders. In various places they found these 
mounds, evidently formed at some time by human 
hands, one of these, ten feet in height and some forty 
feet in diameter, being on the Iroquois River, four 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



miles from the present town of Rensselear, from 
which have been taken shells, bones, and ashes. Other 
mounds were found some three miles north of the pres- 
ent town of Morocco, in Newton County, from which 
have been taken human bones and stone implements ; 
another in what became Washington Township, in the 
same county; and yet another on the south bank of 
the Iroquois near the State line. Other mounds were 
found north of the Kankakee River, from some of 
which human skeletons have been taken, over some 
of which the plowshare has passed year after year, 
still bringing to the surface human remains ; and some 
are even yet undisturbed. Large trees were found 
growing on some of the mounds when the pioneers 
first saw them. They were in shape circular and 
smooth, and regularly formed, although the wolves 
had in some of them made their dens.* 

The following is taken from Lake County, 1884, 
page 474 : "On the farm now owned by J. P. Spal- 
ding, near the northwest corner of section 33, town- 



*The writer of this remembers well his first visit to one 
of these mounds With his father and mother, each on horse- 
back; that father a graduate of Middlebury College, Vermont, 
that mother educated in the best schools of Hartford, Con- 
necticut, and then 34 years of age; and what an interest 
they both took in that work of prehistoric man, as they 
rode up the sloping sides and looked at its smooth, level 
top, and looked around the landscape from that elevation, 
himself admiring it with the eyes of a boy twelve years of 
age. That mother had seen many beautiful and grand New 
England and Southern and ocean sights, nature she dearly 
loved, but on such a mound she had never looked before. 
I am quite sure no spade or plow has yet touched that 
mound. . T. H. B. 



WHAT THESE EARLY SETTLERS FOUND. 63 

ship 33, range 8 west, are the remains of two mounds. 
They have been plowed over for more than forty 
years, [written in 1884] but human skeletons, arrow 
heads and pottery are still unearthed, as the plow- 
share goes deeper year by year. The pottery found 
is of two varieties." These ancient mounds were per- 
haps used in later times for Indian burial places. 

General Packard mentions two mounds near the 
early village of New Durham, in La Porte County, 
which were six feet in height. 

Hubert S. Skinner, in the history of Porter 
County says that, "numerous earth mounds are 
found" there, and that "In the mounds have been 
found human bones, arrow heads, and fragments of 
pottery." 

Says Mr. William Niles, of La Porte, in his his- 
torical sketch of the La Porte Natural History Asso- 
ciation : "At one time Dr. Higday got up an excur- 
sion to the Indian mounds near the Kankakee River, 
and secured for the association a large number of flint 
and copper implements and pottery, and skulls and 
other bones. He read a paper before the Chicago 
Historical Society describing this excursion and its re- 
sults. Some of the specimens were left with the Chi- 
cago society." The others, it seems to be implied, are 
still in La Porte. Very little copper as yet has been 
found in our excavations. 

Returning now south of the Kankakee, in White 
County, there were found several mounds on what 
was named Little Mound Creek ; these were only from 
three to five feet high, but at another location there 
were some about ten feet in height. Fifteen have been 
counted in White. A full account of the many 
mounds of this region does not enter into the plan of 



64 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

this work ; but elsewhere will be found yet more par- 
ticulars in regard to human remains, or prehistoric 
man. 

That the pioneers found not a few Indians here has 
been already stated, and they found that these true 
native Americans had villages, camping places, danc- 
ing floors and burial grounds, and gardens and corn 
fields. South of the Kankakee River, in what became 
known as Beaver Woods, and along the Iroquois 
and Tippecanoe rivers, they had many favorite re- 
sorts, and a large Indian village was found and a 
favorite dancing floor or ground a few miles north of 
where the whites started their village called Morocco. 
Corn fields were found in various places near that 
same locality. 

In White County an Indian village was found half 
a mile north of the present Monticello, and another 
five miles up the river, where large corn fields were 
cultivated. For some reason these Indian fields seem 
to have been much larger on the south than on the 
north side of the Kankakee. For one thing, the soil 
was quite different. A noted Indian trail passed 
along the bank of the Tippecanoe, crossing it where 
is now Monticello, and leading from the Wabash 
River up to Lake Michigan. 

In what is now Jasper County many corn fields 
were found, generally small patches of land, but some- 
times in a single field would be an area of ten or fif- 
teen acres. One large field was four miles and an- 
other seven miles west of the present county seat of 
Jasper County. There were groves of sugar maple 
trees along the Iroquois River, and the first settlers 
found the Indians along that river knowing how to 
make maple sugar. 



WHAT THESE EARLY SETTLERS FOUND. 65 

North of the Kankakee, at what took the name 
of Wiggin's Point, now Merrillville, in Lake County, 
was found, in 1834, quite an Indian village. It was 
called McGwinn's Village. There was a large danc- 
ing floor or ground, and there were trails, whicri were 
well-trodden foot-paths, sixteen in number, leading 
from it in every direction. The dancing ground, called 
a floor, but not a floor of wood, is said to have been 
very smooth and well worn. A few rods distant was 
the village burial ground, the situation, where the 
prairie joined the woodland, well chosen. A few black- 
walnut trees were found growing there, of which very 
few are native in Lake County, as also there were 
two or three near an Indian burial place found on the 
northeastern shore of the Red Cedar Lake. 

At this Wiggin's Point burial place the pioneers 
found in the center of the ground a pole some twenty 
feet in height on which was a white flag. This was the 
best known Indian cemetery in Lake County. As 
many as one hundred graves were there. Some dese- 
crating hands, said to have been those of a physician 
from Michigan City, took out from the earth here an 
Indian form about which were a blanket, a deer skin, 
and a belt of wampum ; and with the body were found 
a rifle and a kettle full of hickory nuts. The pioneers 
found that some of these Indians had not only the 
idea of a future life, but that they had received from 
their white teachers some idea of the resurrection of 
the body. Some of them preferred not to be placed in 
the earth, as they were to live again; and some of 
these early settlers found suspended in a tree, in a 
basket, with bells attached, the dead body of an In- 
dian child. The writer of this obtained his best knowl- 
edge of an Indian cemetery and of Indians lamenting 



66 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



their dead, from a sand mound in Porter County, near 
the shore of Lake Michigan, which will be mentioned 
in the account of City West. 

Besides the Indians themselves, (and some of 
them were in contact with the settlers for ten full 
years) and their gardens, where the Indians cultivated 
some choice grapes as well as vegetables, and their 
trails, and camping grounds and dancing grounds, 
these pioneers found, and the later inhabitants have 
been finding through all these seventy years, flint and 
stone instruments of various kinds, evidently the work 
of human hands. A very little copper, not in its na- 
tive bed or form, they also found. One of the large 
collections of arrow heads, spear heads, and various 
small instruments, whose manufacture is attributed to 
our Indians, is in possession of the present genial and 
intelligent trustee of St. John's Township, H. L. Keil- 
man, all, some two hundred in number, having been 
found on the Keilman. farm near Dyer, on section 
eighteen, township thirty-five, range nine west of the 
second principal meridian. 

It seems desirable that some impression should 
be upon these pages of the real life of the Indians, as 
near as it can be obtained from such contact as they 
had with the whites, thus showing what the pioneers 
found Pottawatomie customs and ways to be. As, 
besides other camps and gardens, so-called, in the 
winter of 1835 and 1836 about six hundred had an 
encampment in the West Creek woodlands, where 
deer were abundant, and an encampment was there 
again the next winter ; and on Red Oak Island, where 
they had a garden, about two hundred camped in the 
winter of 1837 and 1838, and about a hundred and 
fifty on Big White Oak Island, south of Orchard 



WHAT THESE EARLY SETTLERS FOUND. 67 

Grove, and quite an encampment the same winter 
south of the present Lovell, and a camp of thirty In- 
dian lodges the same or the preceding winter north of 
the Red Cedar Lake, and many wigwams along the 
Calumet, and a large Indian village at Indian Town, it 
is evident that the pioneers had some opportunities 
to learn something of their dispositions and ways. 
The following is from "Lake County, 1872." 
"On Red Oak Island they had two stores, kept by 
French traders, who had Indian wives. The names 
of these traders were Bertrand and Lavoire. At Big 
White Oak was one store, kept by Laslie, who was 
also French, with an Indian wife. Here a beautiful 
incident occurred on new year's morning, 1839. 
Charles Kenney and son had been in the marsh look- 
ing up some horses. They staid all night, December 
31st, with Laslie. His Indian wife, neat and thought- 
ful, like any true woman, gave them clean blankets 
out of the store, treated them well, and would receive 
no pay. The morning dawned. The children of the 
encampment gathered, some thirty in number, and the 
oldest Indian, an aged, venerable man, gave to each 
of the children a silver half-dollar as a new year's 
present. As the children received the shining silver 
each one returned to the old Indian a kiss. It was 
their common custom, on such mornings, for the old- 
est Indian present to bestow upon the children the 
gifts. 

A beautiful picture, surely, could be made by a 
painter of this island scene; the marsh lying round, 
the line of timber skirting the unseen river, the en- 
campment, the two white strangers, the joyous chil- 
dren, and the venerable Pottawatomie who, long years 
before, had been active in the chase and resolute as a 



68 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

warrior in his tribe, bestowing the half-dollars and 
bending gracefully down to receive the gentle kisses 
of the children. Such a picture on canvas, by an artist, 
would be of great value among our historic scenes." 

The following incidents, from different sources, 
are all well attested: 

Into what became Newton County in the time of 
the Black Hawk War, about five hundred Kickapoos 
came from Illinois and staid for some little time, but 
gave no trouble to the few whites then there unless 
whiskey was furnished them. 

In the spring of 1837, a party of Indians came 
to the location of David Yeoman, on the Iroquois, to 
catch fish. These they took not by means of spears 
or hooks, but by throwing them out of the water with 
their paddles. They were economical. They would 
exchange the bass with the whites for bread and 
would themselves eat the dog-fish. 

North of the Kankakee, near Indian Town, an 
enterprising settler proposed to plow some ground 
for planting. To this the head Indian objected, saying 
that the land was his, and the squaws wanted it to 
cultivate. This pioneer knew quite well that the 
squaws would not cultivate very much land, so he said 
to the Indian man, "I will plow up some land and 
the squaws may mark off all they want." As he could 
turn the ground over much faster than could the In- 
dian women, this was quite satisfactory. They marked 
off the little patches which they wanted, and left a 
good field for the white man. This incident certainly 
shows a good side of the Indian character. 

As mentioned elsewhere, an early school of La 
Porte County, the first in New Durham Township, 
was taught by Miss Rachel B. Carter, the school open- 



WHAT THESE EARLY SETTLERS FOUND. 69 

ing January I, 1833. As illustrating the taciturn dis- 
position of the Indians, General Packard gives this 
incident: "When Miss Carter was teaching this 
school, Indians of various ages would come to the 
cabin, wrapped in their blankets, and stand for hours 
without uttering a word or making a motion, while 
they gazed curiously at the proceedings. Then they 
would glide away as noiselessly as they came." Other 
characteristics are illustrated by the following: "Upon 
one occasion an Indian woman, called Twin Squaw, 
informed Rachel that the Indians intended to kill all 
the whites, as soon as the corn was knee high. Rachel 
replied that the white people were well aware of the 
intention of the Indians, and taking up a handful of 
sand, said that soldiers were coming from the East 
as numerous as its grains, to destroy the Indians be- 
fore the corn was ankle high. The next morning 
there were no Indians to be found in the vicinity, and 
it was several months before they returned. 

"An Indian told Rachel, at one time, that they 
liked a few whites with them to trade with, to act as 
interpreters, and that they learned many useful things 
of them: but when they commenced coming they 
came like the pigeons." 

A pioneer could appreciate that comparison, but 
"like the pigeons" is hot expressive to those of 
this generation, to those who never saw a wild pigeon. 

Although for a time, on account of Miss Carter's 
reply to Twin Squaw, the Indians disappeared, in 1836 
"some five hundred of them camped in and about 
Westville." 

The desecration of an Indian grave at the Wiggins' 
Point has been mentioned. "It is said that one day, 
after the robbing of the grave, two Indians armed 



70 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

with rifles came into the field where Wiggins was at 
work alone. They went to the grave, and sat down 
their rifles, and talked. Wiggins was alarmed. He 
conjectured that avengers were near, and he was in 
their power. The Indians were evidently much dis- 
pleased, but finally withdrew without offering any 
violence. Wiggins, who had claimed this part of the 
Indian village, allowed his breaking-plow to pass over 
the burial ground. 

"This desecration did not pass unnoticed by the 
Red men. When, in 1840, General Brady, with eleven 
hundred Indians from Michigan, five hundred in one 
division and six hundred in the other, passed through 
this county, some of both divisions visited these 
graves, and some of the squaws groaned, it is said, 
and even wept, as they saw the fate of their ancient 
cemetery. Thoroughly have the American Indians 
learned the power and the progress of the Anglo- 
Saxon civilization, but not much have they experi- 
enced of its justice towards them and theirs." 

Some other incidents of the life at Indian 
Town are instructive, taken, as was the last, from 
Lake County, 1872 : 

"Simeon Bryant selected that section for a farm, 
and leaving Pleasant Grove, built his cabin near the 
village. The Indians at first were not well pleased 
with the idea of a white neighbor; but the resolute 
squatter treated them kindly, would gather up land 
tortoises and take to their wigwams, for which, when 
he threw them on the ground, the women and children 
would eagerly scramble; and alter he had fenced 
around some of their cornfields he still allowed them 
to cultivate the land. This kindness and consideration 
secured their regard. A father' and son from La 



WHAT THESE EARLY SETTLERS FOUND. 71 

Porte County were stopping with this Bryant family 
while improving their claims, and the daughter and 
sister, a girl of eighteen or twenty, came out to 
assist in the housekeeping. She was necessarily 
brought in contact with the villagers. Among these 
were two young Indians about her own age, sons of 
a head man, who were quite inclined to annoy the 
white girl and play pranks. They would lurk around 
and watch her motions, and sometimes when she 
would enter the little outdoor meat-bouse, would 
fasten her in. One day, when she was coming out 
with a pail of buttermilk, one of these young Potta- 
watomies stood in the doorway, with his arms 
stretched across, and refused to allow fier to pass out. 
Reasoning and entreaty were unavailing, and as a last 
resort she took up her pail and, to the great surprise 
of the impolite young savage, dashed the buttermilk 
all over him. He then beat a retreat, and left her 
mistress of the field, with only the loss of one bucket 
of milk. Some time afterward an errand took 
her among the wigwams, and at a time, it appeared, 
when the occupants had obtained some "fire-water." 
^Raising the curtain of their doorway, according to 
custom, to make an inquiry, the young savages 
sprang up and threatened her with their tomahawks. 
She stood and laughed at them, and at length, 
ashamed perhaps to injure the bold, defenceless girl, 
they let her pass on and accomplish her errand. This 
she succeeded in doing, and then returned in safety 
to the Bryant cabin, glad to have escaped the peril 
through which she had passed. The heroine of these 



♦The French traders, it is said, did not sell whisky to 
the Indians, but other traders and some few settlers did 
sell to them. 



72 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

incidents soon afterward married, and became an in- 
habitant of Lake, having now several grown up 
daughters, and being the head of one of our well 
known and highly respected families. 

"A still greater peril was experienced by Mrs. 
Saxton, who became a resident on the Wiggins place. 
Her husband was away, and she was at home with 
small children. The evening was cold and stormy, 
and, as it advanced, an Indian called at the door re- 
questing shelter. At first his request was refused, 
but one of the children pleaded for him; the storm 
was pelting without, and he was admitted. He was 
a young man, and unfortunately had with him a bottle 
of whiskey. He wanted some corn bread. It was 
made, but did not suit him. He drank whiskey and 
was cross. An intoxicated man, whether white or red, 
is an unpleasant guest. A second trial in the bread 
line was made, using only meal, and salt, and water, 
which succeeded better. The Indian talked some, sat 
by the fire, drank. He went to the door and looked 
out. Something to this effect he muttered, "Potta- 
watomie lived all round here; white man drove them 
away. Ugh !" Then he went back to the fire. A little 
child was lying in the cradle, and he threatened its 
life. The alarmed mother and children could offer 
little effectual resistance. But the Indian delayed to 
strike the fatal blow. At length he slept. Then the 
startled mother poured out what was left in the bottle, 
and waited for the morning. The savage and drunken 
guest awoke, examined his bottle, and finding it 
empty, said, "Bad Shemokiman woman ! Drink up 
all Indian's whiskey." He then went off to Miller's 
Mill, replenished his bottle and returned. Sometime in 
the day Dr. Palmer came along and succeeded in re- 



WHAT THESE EARLY SETTLERS FOUND. 73 

lieving this family of their troublesome guest. The 
next night this Indian's father came; apologized as 
best he could; said that was bad Indian and shoulcl 
trouble them no more. 

"One pleasant Red Cedar Lake incident may be 
here recorded. A party of nine, eight men and one 
squaw, called one morning at the residence of H. Ball, 
and desired breakfast. It was soon prepared for them, 
and all took places at the table and ate heartily. At 
first only the men took seats for eating, but their en- 
tertainer insisted that the squaw also should sit down 
with them. This caused among the Indians no little 
merriment. They had brought with them consider- 
able many packages of fur, and as they passed ou: 
each one took two muskrat skins and laid them down 
as the pay for his breakfast. They then went into a lit- 
tle store on the place and traded out quite a quantity 
of fur. After some hours of trading they quietly de- 
parted. 

"And still further illustrative of the mode of liv- 
ing and customs of these French-taught Pottawa- 
tomies, let us look again upon the village and white 
family at Indian Town. 

"A head man resides there called a chief. J. W. 
Dinwiddie, his father, and sister, are staying with the 
Bryant family until their own claim is ready for oc- 
cupancy. The chief keeps a cow, and so do the whites. 
The chiefs wife would bring up their cow, and also 
would drive along sometimes the other cow, saying as 
she passed the settler's cabin, "Here, John, I have 
brought up Margaret's cow. This squaw had quite a 
fair complexion, was between thirty and forty years 
of age, in appearance; could talk some English, and 
was very kind to the whites. The chief's name was 



74 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

called Shaw-no-quak. Here was also a dancing 
floor. The Indians would form in a line for a dance 
according to age, the oldest always first, the little chil- 
dren last. They danced in lines back and forth. The 
old chief, a young chief, and an old Indian sat to- 
gether and furnished the music. This was made by 
skaking corn in a gourd. The song repeated over and 
over the name of their chief. After the dance they 
feasted on venison soup, with green corn, made in iron 
kettles served in wooden trenches with wooden ladles. 
The white neighbors present at one of these enter- 
tainments were invited to partake. This the women 
declined doing, which the chief did not like. And 
thus he expressed his displeasure : "No good Shemo- 
kiman! no good! no eat! no good Shemokiman 
woman!" Then he would pat S. Bryant and say, 
"Good Shemokiman ! Good Shemokiman ! Eat with 
Indian !" 

The Indians here, on the gardens, and elsewhere, 
lived in lodges or wigwams. These were made of 
poles driven into the ground, the tops converging, and 
around the circle formed by the poles was wound a 
species of matting made of flags or rushes. This 
woven flag resembled a variety of green window 
shades seen in some of our stores and houses. The 
Indian men wore a calico shirt, leggins, moccasins, 
and a blanket. The squaws wore a broadcloth skirt 
and blanket. They "toted" or "packed" burdens. 
The Indians along the marsh kept a good many 
ponies. These they loaded heavily with furs and tent- 
matting when migrating. They also used canoes for 
migrating up and down the Kankakee. The village 
Indians lost some eighty ponies one winter for want 
of sufficient food. Those at Orchard Grove wintered 



WHAT THESE EARLY SETTLERS FOUND. 75 

very well. During the winter the men were busy 
trapping. Three Indians caught, in one season, thir- 
teen hundred raccoons. They sold the skins for one 
dollar and a quarter each, thus making on raccoon 
fur alone $1,625. Other fur was very abundant and 
brought a high price in market. They trapped eco- 
nomically until they were about to leave forever the 
hunting-grounds of their forefathers. They then 
seemed to care little for the fur interests of those who 
had purchased their lands, and were destroying as well 
as trapping, when some of the settlers interfered. 

One of these was H. Sanger. He, in company 
with some others, went on to the marsh to stay the 
destruction it was said was there going on. He went 
in advance of the others after reaching the trapping 
ground, and told the Indians they must cease to de- 
stroy the homes of the fur-bearers. He was himself 
a tall, and was then an athletic man, and said he, 
"Look yonder. Don't you see my men?" 

They did see men coming, and were alarmed, and 
mentioned to others the threatening aspect of the "tall 
Shemokiman." 

One Indian burial-place has been mentioned, the 
one at the McGwinn village. This contained about 
one hundred graves. Another has also been referred 
to at the head of Cedar Lake. This one has not been 
specially disturbed. At Big White Oak Island was a 
third. Here were a good many graves ; and among 
them six or seven with crosses. There were prob- 
ably others over which the plowshare has passed and 
no memorial of them remains. At Crown Point was 
a small garden, and on the height Indians seem to 
have camped, but no burial-place is known to have 
been found here. A few tomahawks have been found 
near the present town." 



76 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Few of the Indians remained after 1840, except 
around Winamac, where tHey lingered till 1844. 

To us the Pottawatomies have left their known and 
unknown burial places, the names of some of the 
rivers, "and their own perishing memorials and re- 
membrances as treasured up by those with whom they 
had intercourse." And few of those who saw them at 
their encampments, on their hardy ponies, in and 
around their wigwams, and received some of them 
into their houses, are living now. 

It is only justice that the citizens of Northern In- 
diana, as was written in 1872, should treasure up and 
transmit to posterity, among their own records, some 
memories and incidents of the once powerful Potta- 
watomies. 

Although coming in contact more or less with the 
Indians for ten years, the settlers here were fortu- 
nate, so far as any record has been found, in this re- 
spect, that no Indian life was taken by a white man. 
No murder of an Indian by a settler seems to have 
been committed, although a settler while hunting 
came near to taking life unintentionally. What kind 
of justice would have been administered here in case 
of the murder of an Indian is uncertain. 



INDIAN TRAILS. 

The early settlers found here some well marked 
or well trodden pathways, trodden apparently by hu- 
man feet and pony feet, but not by buffalo feet, to 
which the name was given of "trails." 

This word as often used by hunters and frontier 
men denotes the slight trace that is left where a wild 
animal or a man has passed but once, and to follow 



WHAT THESE EARLY SETTLERS FOUND. 77 

such a trail is not an easy matter ; but it is also used to 
denote a narrow pathway that may have been trodden 
a hundred or a thousand times. 

One well defined trail, called the Sac Trail, as made 
or as supposed to have been made by the Sacs in 
journeying from their eastern to their western limit, 
passed across La Porte, Porter, and Lake counties, 
and as the ground was well chosen it became the line, 
occasionally straightened in the years of advancing 
settlement, for the main eastern and western thor- 
oughfare from Michigan to Joliet. To see in one 
continuous line, living and moving westward now, 
the Indians that during their occupancy had passed 
along it, and then, after them, the white covered 
wagons with ox teams and horse teams that from 
1836 till even now have passed along that roadway, 
would be a sight, a procession, worth going many 
miles to see. 

Southwest a short distance, that is, a few miles 
from Kouts, two trails coming together, crossed the 
Kankakee River, at a good river and marsh fording 
place. Traces of some kind of earthworks, covering 
four or five acres, were found there in 1836, to which 
the early settlers gave the name of fort, conjecturing 
that it was once a French fort, when Tassinong first 
was named. A well-marked trail came up from the 
Wabash River called the great "Allen trail," passing 
near the present town of Francesville, and crossing 
the Kankakee, probably, at this fording place where 
the trails just mentioned divided. 

These seem to have been the larger trails. From 
the Sac trail one led off, passing near the Lake of the 
Red Cedars and across what was named Lake Prairie, 
to the Rapids of the Kankakee, where is now Mo- 



78 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

mence. And passing by the old Baillytown one seems 
to have passed near or along Lake Michigan to Fort 
Dearborn, now Chicago. Traders, travellers, scout- 
ing parties, and frontier-men, passed along these 
trails before the wagons of the pioneers widened them 
out with their wheel tracks. 



CHAPTER V. 



PIONEER LIFE— 1830 to 1850. 

From the year 1830, or rather as early as 1829, 
when the first families of early settlers came in among 
Indian residents and Indian owners of the prairies and 
woodlands, down to the year 1840, when but few of 
the children of the wilds remained, the white families 
that here made homes were true pioneers. They led 
the true American pioneer life; but different in one 
respect from the pioneers of the Atlantic sea coast 
colonies, and of the South, and of some in the far- 
ther West in later times, inasmuch as the Indians, 
among whom for a time they were, remained on 
friendly terms, and there were no. massacres of families 
no wakeful nights when on the still air came the In- 
dian warwhoop, no need for building barricades or 
resorting to forts or stockades for the preservation of 
life. A few, it is true, there were, in the neighbor- 
hood that became Door Village, who had settled as 
early as 1832, who thought it needful to build a stock- 
ade fort when the Black Hawk War in Illinois broke 
out ; but they soon found that there was no need. The 
days of peril from Indians east of the Mississippi, and 
of perilous excitements had passed, before much set- 
tlement was made in North-Western Indiana. Some 
settlement had been made in W T hite County, and some 
alarmed families left their homes when the rumors 



80 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

reached them in regard to Black Hawk. More set- 
tlement had been made in La Porte County before 
the Black Hawk War of 1832, and the opening events 
of that war did cause some alarm and some prepara- 
tions for defense. In May, 1832, information was sent 
to Arba Heald, near Door Village, from whom in 183 1 
Sac Indians had stolen some horses, that hostilities 
had commenced at Hickory Creek, in Illinois, and im- 
mediately the inhabitants of that settlement, forty-two 
men among them, erected earthworks, dug a ditch, 
and planted palisades around an enclosure one hun- 
dred and twenty-five feet square, located half a mile 
east of Door Village. About three miles further east 
a block house was built. General Joseph Orr, a 
noted La Porte pioneer, who had received a commis- 
sion as Brigadier General, from Governor Ray in 
1827, reported the building of this fort to the Gov- 
ernor of Indiana and was by him appointed to raise 
a company of mounted rangers for service, if needed. 
This company he raised, reporting to the commandant 
at Fort Dearborn and also to General Winfield Scott. 
Mrs. Arba Heald refused to repair to the stockade, 
but obtaining two rifles, two axes, and two pitchforks, 
determined to barricade and defend her own home. 

For the rangers, although they did some march- 
ing or scouting, there proved to be no need. The 
chief, Black Hawk, was soon captured and the alarm 
in La Porte County was over. 

The alarm could not extend over those then un- 
purchased and unsurveyed lands where there were no 
white families, and in La Porte and White counties 
it caused but a little break in the quiet of pioneer life. 

Although the pioner period has, to quite an ex- 
tent, been placed between 1830- and 1840, during 



PIONEER LIFE. 81 



which time some of the Indians remained and some 
settlers were still "squatters," yet the real pioneer life 
in its general aspects continued, and will thus in this 
chapter be viewed, until the first half of this Nine- 
teenth Century was closing ; and as the second half of 
the century opened, the era of railroads in Northern 
Indiana commenced, when modes of life rapidly 
changed. This gives us pioneer or frontier life till 
1850, or for a period of twenty years. 

What was this life? In all our land, from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, there is not much to be found 
that is like it now. It is difficult to picture it vividly 
before the minds of the young people of the present. 

Hon. Bartlett Woods, of Crown Point, in an arti- 
cle on "The Pioneer Setjtlers, Their Hjomes and 
Habits, Their Descendants and Influence," prepared 
for the Lake County Semi-Centennial of 1884, gave 
some fine pen-pictures of this variety of life. 

In a history of Indiana forty pages of a large vol- 
ume are devoted to a description of it. A more brief 
view will be given here. 

There were then, it should be recalled to mind, no 
railroads leading out from the Eastern cities, from 
Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, across all the 
great Valley of the Mississippi. The mountain ranges 
and the dense forests were great barriers then between 
New England and New York and the new 
Indiana and Michigan Territory. Until 1837 
Michigan was not a state. There was in that 
year a canal from Troy to Buffalo. Some steam- 
boats were running on Lake Erie. There was a short 
horse-car railroad extending out from Toledo. Some 
vessels passed around, it was said "through the great 
lakes," and took freight to the young Chicago. Some 



82 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

schooners sailed on Lake Michigan. Here, in this- 
northwest corner of Indiana, there were in 1830 no 
roads, except Indian trails, no bridges, no mills, no 
stores, except, perhaps, some Indian trading posts, 
no workshops of any kind. All the necessities and 
conveniences of our modern civilization were then to 
be made. The families came in strong covered 
wagons drawn sometimes by horses, but often by 
oxen. The men brought a few tools, especially axes 
and iron wedges, hammers, saws, augurs, gimblets, 
frows, and some planes. The women brought their 
needles, scissors, thimbles, pins, thread, yarn, spinning 
wheels, and some looms. Especially the men and 
boys brought their guns and bullet-molds, for on the 
grand Indian hunting grounds they were entering, 
and that game, which had been so abundant for the 
Indians, was as free and as abundant now for them. 
Game laws then were not. 

A few cooking utensils these pioneers brought 
with them, tea-kettles, bake-kettles, skillets, frying- 
pans; also a few plates, cups and saucers, knives, 
forks, and spoons. Their household furniture, tables, 
chairs, bedding, were very simple outfits for house- 
keeping in the wilderness. 

After a location was chosen, and that must be near 
water, the erection of a log cabin was the first work, 
and then a little clearing was made, for these first 
settlers staid by the trees. They built few cabins in 
the open prairie. In the heavy timber of our eastern 
border and in the groves or woodlands skirting the 
prairies, along the Tippecanoe and Iroquois, and near 
to Lake Michigan, and on the borders of the little 
lakes, here and there cabins were erected, and what 
was called "squatter life" commenced. It was a wild, 



PIONEER LIFE. 



a free, in some respects a rich, a delightful life. The 
land like the game was free to all. Each one could 
go when he wished, locate wherever he chose, take 
whatever he could find on the prairie or in the woods, 
provided he interfered with no Indian and with no 
other settler's rights. He could cut down trees, 
pasture his few cattle, cut grass for his winter's hay, 
plow and plant the soil anywhere, careful only not to 
infringe on any other who was a squatter like himself. 
Largely was each man a law unto himself. It was a 
large freedom. And well was it that these squatters 
brought with them the power of self-restraint ac- 
quired in their eastern homes. Well was it that they 
kept in practice where scarcely any law but that of God 
was over them, their moral and religious principles, 
and so formed virtuous and religious communities. 

From at first a dozen and then a score of pioneer 
families, there gathered in several hundred families 
scattered over this region before 1840 came, and for 
ten years there were some Indians left among them. 

But now we may, to some extent, look at their 
modes of life and see them in their homes, in their 
schools, at their social and religious gatherings, and 
at their work. 

After the cabin was erected, the main tool used in 
its construction having been "the woodman's axe," 
the few articles of furniture from the wagons were 
placed within upon the "'puncheon" floor, and the rude 
bedstead was constructed by boring, if one was fortu- 
nate enough to have that very needful frontier tool, 
an augur, a hole in one of the logs, about six feet from 
one corner, the proper height from the floor for a 
bedstead, and then another four or five feet from the 
corner, in a corresponding log that formed a right 



84 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

angle with the other; then cutting two saplings and 
making from them the one sideboard and the foot- 
board for the bedstead frame, and cutting a good solid 
post for the upright and boring two holes in that, and 
inserting in these the prepared ends of the two pieces 
of saplings, the other ends also prepared being placed 
in the holes in the walls, and see ! the frame of the bed- 
stead was all up. It had one post. The head board 
was the log wall, one side was the log wall, one side 
and the foot-board were held up by the sapling post, 
and only a little more ingenuity was then needful to 
enable one to stretch a bed cord for the support of the 
hay-filled tick or mattress. But if the family had not 
been so thoughtful as to bring bed cords, which were 
in such general use in those days, then poles were cut 
and fastened to the side sapling and to the opposite 
log. This might require additional use of the augur, 
a tool next to the axe and saw in its usefulness. But 
the luxury of one of these primitive bedsteads, on one 
of which the writer of this slept on his first visit to 
Lake County, was not always enjoyed. What the 
pioneers called the "soft" or smooth side, the hewed 
side, of a puncheon answered quite well in those days 
for resting weary limbs. 

The ample fire-place, the chimney made of clay and 
sticks, the sticks split out with that other needful 
frontier instrument, a frow, and laid up as children 
make cob-houses, the clay between the layers and on 
the inside spread over thick and well to keep the wood 
from taking fire, — this fire-place furnished a place for 
cooking, and the blazing logs with hickory bark fur- 
nished some light at night. But more light was often 
needed. The most primitive method of obtaining this 
was, to take an iron tablespoon, fill the bowl nearly 



PIONEER LIFE. 85 



full with some of the fat from the fried meat, insert 
the handle of the spoon between the logs among "the 
chinks" of the wall, lay a piece of cotton cloth in the 
fat, and light the end, and thus light was obtained by 
means of which, when visitors were present, some 
families took supper. But others used candles, hav- 
ing brought the molds with them, by means of which 
with candle wicking they made first-class tallow can- 
dles. But a more rapid way of making candles, and 
affording a pretty sight in a winter evening, was the 
(mite common way of dipping. Small wooden rods 
were easily made, and on these the wicks were placed 
cut the right length for a candle, having about six on 
each rod. The tallow, melted and quite hot, was in a 
large, deep vessel, and into this the women and girls 
dipped the wicks that were on the rods. At each dip 
the wick took on a coating of tallow and time was 
allowed for it to cool between the dips. When the 
melted tallow became too shallow to cover all the wick 
hot water was poured in to fill up the vessel, the 
melted tallow rising to the surface. Thus the process 
was continued till the full sized candle was formed. 
In this way, before the oil wells were dug or kerosene 
known our pioneer women made candles. And a 
good many dozen could thus be made in one evening. 
An American home needs fire by day and light at 
night, and with these were the pioneer homes pro- 
vided. There was much sewing and knitting to be 
done in the long winter evenings. No machines tc 
work with then. There were books to be read, and 
sometimes papers, for many of these families were far 
from being ignorant; and it seems remarkable now, 
looking back from our bright kerosene and electric 
lights, into those homes of sixty-five and sixty years 



86 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

ago, how much was accomplished by what would now 
be called the dim light of those ''tallow-dips." The 
writer of this., a pioneer child once, remembers well 
when giving in his youth, to a small but cultivated 
audience, one of his earliest public addresses, and be- 
ing then closely confined to his manuscript, how on 
one side of him stood "Deacon Luce" and on the 
other "Deacon Cushing," each holding in his hand a 
candlestick with a tallow candle to shed light upon 
the written page. (It was a different kind of light 
that went forth that night from that written page.) 
A picture of that room, the young reader, the au- 
dience, and the candle bearers, would be amusing now. 
There was no humor about the reality then. Those 
two noble, Christian men have gone, and the pioneer 
days have gone; but to a few gray-haired men and 
women now, Ossian's words may be true, that the 
memory of days that have passed is like the music of 
Caryl, pleasant but mournful to the soul. 

Home life is an important part of true life, and 
so we have looked into those early homes to see 
that warmth and light and industry and thrift were 
there. The light of love was surely there. The cards 
and spinning wheels and the scissors and needles in 
expert hands, are doing their proper work, and the 
boys have bullets to mold and whip lashes to braid 
and axe handles to make. There is employment for 
all. 

It is now 1837 ; and wild as is all this region still, 
there are families scattered over it who are to build 
up civilized institutions and civil and religious life. 
The smoke that now goes up into the sky, curling 
above the tree tops on a clear, frosty morning, is no 
longer from Indian wigwams arid hunting parties 



PIONEER LIFE. 87 



alone, but from the cabins of white men, mainly, who 
with their women and children have come "to pos- 
sess the land." Social life has commenced. With so- 
cial life ,the families becoming acquainted and neigh- 
borhoods forming, school life also begins. Some of 
the earliest schools were held in the homes ; but log 
school houses were soon erected, having the stick 
and clay chimneys, large fire-places, and windows 
without glass. The public school system of Indiana 
was quite in its infancy then, but persons were ap- 
pointed by the State to examine teachers. These ex- 
aminations were private or might be so. There was 
no law to the contrary. One could be examined 
alone whenever or wherever he could find the ex- 
aminer. Each examiner asked his own questions and 
these were not generally many or difficult. The ex- 
aminations were short. One half hour was time 
enough. The public money paid to the teach- 
ers was correspondingly small in amount. Some- 
times one dollar, sometimes two for each 
week, the teachers boarding in the different 
families free from expense. This feature of the teach- 
er's life had its advantages and pleasures, and also its 
inconveniences. It insured an acquaintanceship be- 
tween the teacher and the parents of the pupils, and 
was probably some help in the matter of school gov- 
ernment. The inconveniences need not be named.* 



♦One young teacher had an experience of more than in- 
convenience. Perhaps it was her first school. The time 
came to board a few days with a certain family. She went 
home with the children to the house. The dog was cross, 
hut the children kept him off. When bed-time came the 
woman of the house, a widow, the mother of the children, 
showed the teacher to a little room well enough furnished 



88 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

There were in these earliest schools some well 
educated and accomplished teachers. There are no 
more thoroughly educated teachers now than were 
some of them. Yet many of them, probably, had 
not received much special training. Those thoroughly 
educated did not teach long. They were required in 
other lines of activity. 

Connected with the early schools was a part of 
the social life of those pioneer years. The young 
people felt the need of society of some kind, and those 
of some intellectual and literary aspirations sought 
this in the spelling schools held evenings at their 
school houses, other exercises besides spelling being 
introduced. And then literary societies were formed, 
the exercises helping to educate the ambitious; the 
going to and from these gatherings, sometimes on 
horseback, sometimes in sleighs, giving to all the in- 
fluences of social intercourse, leading to the forming 
of acquaintances and of friendships, some of them 
proving to be life-long. 

In these early days there were two varieties of 
people among the comparatively few inhabitants, as 



and not specially lacking in neatness; but before leaving 
she very unwisely said to the teacher that no one had slept 
in that room since her husband died there' with the small- 
pox. It did not matter, so far as the imagination of that 
young girl was concerned, that months had passed since 
then, or that the room, which was somewhat probable, 
had been fumigated, washed, cleansed. She begged to be 
allowed to stay somewhere else, to lodge with the chil- 
dren, anywhere other than there. But no. There she must 
lodge. The door was closed upon her. That teacher said 
she prayed all night. Prayer kept reason on its throne. 
But it was a night of terror. She did not return to that 
house again. She has daughters now teachers in our schools. 
They have no such experiences. 



PIONEER LIFE. 89 



nearly always in every community there will be, those 
of strong, abiding religious principles, and those car- 
ing more for pleasure and for the enjoyments of the 
present. Of this latter some, from the very first, so 
soon as social life may be said to have commenced, 
sought their social enjoyments in little dancing par- 
ties, whenever there were homes in which they could 
meet. For literary exercises and intellectual enjoy- 
ments they had not much relish. 

The families of the other variety of settlers, who 
came from eastern homes of culture and of church 
life, whose children did not attend these little dancing 
parties, commenced religious meetings, organized 
Sunday schools, and gave opportunities to all for at- 
tending to the higher and grander interests of hu- 
manity. Thus among the earliest of the pioneers the 
foundations were laid for the schools, the literary life, 
the intelligence, and the church life of the present. 

Those early religious gatherings were quite dif- 
ferent from most of the staid church life of the pres- 
ent. An appointment was made for preaching at some 
dwelling house or school house, and at the time ap- 
pointed a true pioneer community gathered. Some 
came on foot, some on horseback, some with ox 
teams, their styles of dress various, and if in the 
summer time not only the children but some of the 
men barefooted, their dogs coming with them, yet, 
all, the dogs excepted, giving an earnest attention to 
the services. There was no organ and no choir, but 
some one would lead in the singing, and, as books of 
the same kind were scarce, the hymns were often 
"lined," and a variety of voices would join in the sing- 
ing. If there was not so much harmony or melody in 
the singing then as now, there was probably quite as 



90 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

much real devotion. There were, too, among these 
pioneers some accomplished singers, and when a few 
of these met, as occasionally they did, there was rich 
music, harmony, melody, devotion. 

The pioneer preachers, as a rule, were well in- 
structed men, men who were not brought up in the 
"back-woods." And they were devoted to their duties 
and to the interests of the people. The names of 
some of them will be found in other chapters. 

The singing schools were another interesting and 
characteristic feature of those early days. As social 
gatherings they were very enjoyable, and some of 
the teachers of vocal music in Porter and Lake coun- 
ties, as Mr. Beach, of Beebe's Grove, and W. H. Mc- 
Nutt, of Yellow Head, and Professor Tyson, of Bos- 
ton, were accomplished masters of their art. 

Among the social gatherings were conspicuous 
also the Fourth of July celebrations, quite different 
from the observances of these days. 

Let us look now, for a few moments, more mi- 
nutely at the everyday life of these settlers. After 
erecting their cabins the first great work was, to make 
rails. They needed to become rail-splitters so as to 
build fences. It took no little work and hard work 
to open up a farm, even on the prairies, much more 
in the woodlands and in the heavy timber. It re- 
quired more than ten thousand rails to put a good 
fence around a quarter of a section of land, one hun- 
dred and sixty acres. All the early fences were what 
is called the Virginia or worm fence, two lengths for 
each rod. The cost of splitting rails in 1840 was 
fifty cents for a hundred. 

The first plowing, called "breaking," which was 
turning over the prairie sod, required a large plow 



PIONEER LIFE. 91 



and a heavy team. Six or even eight yoke of oxen 
were used, and such a team was called in the lan- 
guage of the pioneers, a breaking team, and the large 
plow with its wooden mold-board and sharp coulter 
was a breaking plow, used only for "breaking up" 
prairie. The furrows were wide — eighteen or twenty 
inches — and the green sward of the prairie turned 
over smoothly and beautifully. When the time came 
for the second and third plowings of this fertile land, 
it was found that the soil would stick to the mold- 
boards of all their plows, which rendered the next 
turning over of the furrow difficult. The earth was 
crowded out from its place the width of the plow, but 
was not fairly turned over. The farmers longed for 
a plow that, in their language, would "scour." 

The following reminiscence was given by a writer 
in a secular paper soon after the death of David 
Bradley, founder of the great agricultural manufactur- 
ing company located somewhat recently near Kanka- 
kee, Illinois. The writer says : "While visiting Jack 
Spitler's famous farm in Newton County, Indiana, 
he witnessed the trial of a Bradley plow. It was rep- 
resented that the new fangled implement would scour, 
and the trial drew a crowd from miles around. Much 
to the delight of the farmers present the plow did 
the work as represented, and they imagined that the 
zenith of agricultural implement invention had been 
reached. "Up to this time," the writer adds, "no 
manufacturer had succeeded in making a plow that 
would scour in heavy black or clay soil." The year 
of this trial is not given, but it was not far, prob- 
ably, from 1848. The farmers then had no idea, of 
the improvements that would be made in agricultural 
implements in the coming fifty years. In those early 



92 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

days, before 1850, the plowmen largely were obliged 
to stop every little while and clean off the earth 
sticking on the mold-board, either with the heel or, 
better, with a little paddle which they carried along 
with them. And when they began to hold plows that 
would throw all the black soil off and remain bright 
and clean it is no wonder they were delighted. 

While this home work of fence building and break- 
ing was going on, some of the men were busy build- 
ing dams, and erecting saw mills and then grist 
mills. They imitated the already extinct beaver in 
making dams, but from them they had not learned 
skill, for many times these man-made dams would 
give way. But the mills were very useful, very need- 
ful. Each man took his grain to the mill, waiting 
sometimes many hours for his turn to come, and re- 
ceiving at length, if he took wheat, flour and shorts 
and bran. Every farmer could then eat bread from 
grain of his own raising. 

After provision was thus made for the first phys- 
ical wants, carding mills also having been erected, 
blacksmith shops built and furnished with tools and 
iron, shoemakers and a few tailors commencing their 
work, stores having been opened for both dry goods 
and groceries, in a few years, for all this pioneer work 
took time, attention began to be given to the erection 
of frame houses, the burning of brick, and then the 
erection of church buildings. In Lake County brick 
kilns date from 1840, six years after the first few 
families built their stick chimneys. 

The first church building in La Porte County 
commenced about 1836; in Porter about 1842; and in 
Lake in 1843. 

A few words ought to be given fo the earliest shel- 



PIONEER LIFE. 93 



ters for domestic animals erected by the pioneers. 
The axe was the great tool before the saw mill could 
be built, and for the first stables posts were cut, set 
upright in the ground, poles were laid upon these, 
posts with natural crotches having been selected, and 
then cross poles or rails laid over all, and these were 
covered with green grass or hay. Grass was one thing 
which the pioneers had in abundance. For the sides, 
slanting poles or rails were set up and covered with 
hay. These stables were sufficiently warm, but they 
were dark, and so not good for the horses' eyes when 
the sun shone on the snow without. Before grain was 
raised to furnish straw the hogs provided their own 
beds by gathering leaves in their mouths and placing 
these in some sheltered nook. 

From 1830 to 1835, except in La Porte County 
and to some extent in White County, not many fami- 
lies settled in among the Indians. But from 1835 to 
1840 settlements, here and there, were made over all 
the region north of the Kankakee River, hundreds of 
families coming in and taking up claims before the 
land sale of 1839. Yet the population was not large 
when the census of 1840 was taken. 

Steadily along, yet not rapidly, improvements took 
place from 1840 to 1845, m ^ny German families com- 
ing in and some of other nationalities, seeking homes 
on new, unbroken land, or buying the improvements 
of the true frontier families who were ready to pene- 
trate into the wilds of the more distant West. Along 
in these years some private schools were commenced 
and several churches were built and frame houses were 
erected with brick chimneys. And then the closing 
portion of pioneer life, from 1845 to 1850 rapidly 
passed. The railroads were corning; and from fron- 
tier to railroad life the change was very great. 



94 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

On the whole, notwithstanding some privations, 
this early life was pleasant. Such freedom from con- 
ventionalities, such hospitality, such equality, such 
freedom from the tyranny of fashion, from corrup- 
tion in civil government, from millionaire influence, 
such an aspect everywhere of true American citizen- 
ship, such an abundance of wild game and of wild 
fruits free for all, although there was even then some 
wrong-doing, it is no wonder that some look almost 
regretfully back to those good old days. 

Pleasant and some thrilling recollections of the 
wild animals of the early years belong to. those who 
were pioneer children then. It took these wild ani- 
mals, especially the quails and grouse and wolves and 
deer, so abundant in those days, some little time to 
learn that some new occupants were taking posses- 
sion of their haunts, and when the wolves would come 
suddenly, in the day time, into a field of corn, and the 
deer would come suddenly upon a settler's cabin, 
while the children were delighted, these animals were 
certainly surprised. 

It was for the children a thrilling experience of this 
rich life, when in the evening, returning home from 
some spelling school or literary society, they heard the 
sudden, quick, sharp barking of the wolves. While 
the pioneer children were not generally timid, two or 
three wolves could do enough howling to quicken tht 
flow of their blood and hasten their foot-steps. Yet 
it was a sound which some of the New England born 
children loved well to hear. 

The pioneers sometimes had large "drive" hunts. 
A good example of these was one in White County 
in 1840, in Big Creek Township. The boundaries of 
the hunting ground were, on the north, Monon Creek ; 



PIONEER LIFE. 95 



on the east, the Tippecanoe River ; on the south, the 
Wabash; on the west, the county line. At eight 
o'clock in the morning the men and boys started 
along the outskirts of this large area, with no guns 
in their hands, as they were only to scare up the game 
and send the deer and the wolves, from grove and 
prairie, inward to the center. They were to meet at 
two o'clock at Reynold's Grove. There scaffolds had 
been erected, and on those were the sharp shooters 
with rifles and ammunition. As that afternoon hour 
approached, from each direction the startled deer and 
frightened wolves began to appear, and soon the sharp 
reports of the rifles reached the ears of the distant 
boys and men. On every side of those elevated stands 
the deer fell, and when the riders and footmen reached 
this central place they collected fifty deer as the result 
of that day's chase, and found many dead wolves 
stretched upon the ground. How many broke the 
ranks and escaped no one could accurately tell. 

In some of these hunts, when not carefully con- 
ducted, most of the enclosed game would escape.* 

The common mode of hunting deer was not what 
is called driving, but what hunters called "still hunt- 
ing" or sometimes called "stalking." No noise was 
made, no dogs were used to track them up. But some- 



*Deer will rush quickly by the excited hunter. I came 
near being run over, in my youth, by a large drove of 
startled deer, as I chanced to be, one day, in their run- 
way in the West Creek woods. There was no time to 
count their number, but had they been crowded together 
like buffalo they would have trampled the young hunter 
under their feet. It was a beautiful and a thrilling sight, 
as, one after another, they bounded by, almost within reach 
of one's very hands. T. H. B. 



96 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

times a man would mount a horse from the back of 
which he could shoot, and having on the neck of the 
horse a bell, would start up a herd of deer and follow 
them up with his horse and bell as best he could. The 
theory was, and a fact it proved to be, that the deer 
would in a few hours become so accustomed to the 
sound of the bell and the sight of the horse that the 
hunter could approach near enough to make a sure 
shot. Then he could strap the deer on his horse 
behind him and return to his home. 



The time may come, in another generation or two, 
when no eye-witnesses are living, that the large num- 
bers of deer which traditions will say were often seen 
together, will be counted only as hunter's tales, and 
not entitled to belief ; but that those beautiful creatures 
that added so much life to the woodlands and the 
prairies Were here in large numbers, is now beyond 
any question. There are some living who have seen 
them. 

It is a well attested fact that when men were 
putting on the roof of what for many years was known 
as the "Rockwell House," in Crown Point, they saw- 
coming out from Brown's Point, two miles north- 
ward, and passing across the open prairie to School 
Grove, one mile southeastward, a herd of deer, num- 
bering, as well as they could count them, one hun- 
dred and eleven. 

In 1843 an( l m J &44 as man y as seventy deer, it is 
claimed, could be seen at one time on the prairies in 
Newton and Jasper counties ; and Mr. David Nowels, 
one of the substantial citizens of Rensselaer, says that 
he has seen as many as seventy-five at one time. 
While not a noted hunter, as his 1 father was, he has 



PIONEER LIFE. 97 



killed as many as five deer in one day. He is au- 
thority also for the statement that, in those earlier 
years of pioneer life, good raccoon skins, black, would 
bring from two to three dollars each, and a good, large 
mink skin would sell for seven dollars, and a large 
otter skin would sometimes bring ten dollars. Musk- 
rat skins were not in so great demand.* 

The facts are well attested that others have seen, 
some of whom are yet living, from twenty to forty and 
fifty deer in a single herd or drove, either quietly 
feeding, or in that beautiful and rapid motion which 
has given to us the comparison, one "runs like a 
deer." 

Some few noted hunters were among the pioneers, 
equal, probably, in their success, to Ossian's "hunters 
of the deer/' One of these was V. Morgan, of Pulaski 
County, Jefferson Township. The number of deer 
that he killed is not exactly known, but it was esti- 
mated at four hundred. The last deer killed in that 
township, according to the traditions, were shot in 
the winter of 1880 and 1881. Of these there were 
only three or four. 

There can be no exaggeration in asserting that 
some sixty and seventy years ago there were deer 
here not only by the hundreds but by the thousands ; 
as there were the prairie chickens or pinnated grouse 
here thousands upon thousands, and wild ducks and 
wild geese and wild pigeons, surely by the millions. 



♦Conversation in a visit October 16, 1899. 



CHAPTER VI. 



COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS. 

I. By an act of the Indiana Legislature, approved 
January 9, 1832, a certain area was to be from and 
after April 1, 1832, known as La Porte County. This 
area, according to the copy of the act examined, was 
thus described : "Beginning at the State line which 
divides the State of Indiana and Michigan Territory, 
and at the northwest corner of township number 
thirty-eight north, range number four west of the 
[second] principal meridian, thence running east with 
said State line to the center of range number one west 
of said meridian ; thence south twenty-two miles , 
thence west, parallel with said State line, twenty-one 
miles; thence north to the place of beginning." The 
northwest corner of La Porte County, it thus appears, 
like that of the State, is in Lake Michigan, and it also 
appears that the Legislature formed into a county 
some land, a strip twelve miles in width which had 
not then been purchased from the Indians. Since that 
time an addition has been made to the southern part 
of the county and a small area has been added on the 
east, so that now the Kankakee River forms most of 
the southern and a part of the eastern boundary. 

Commissioners of the new county were soon 
elected, Chapel W. Brown, Jesse Morgan, and Elijah 
H. Brown; also George Thomas was elected clerk, 
and Benjamin McCarty, sheriff. The commissioners 



COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS. 99 

met May 28, 1832. They divided the county into 
three townships, and made of each a commissioner's 
district. 

A Circuit Court, probably in 1832, commenced its 
jurisdiction and its sessions. The judges until 185 1, 
when the new Constitution was adopted, were : Gus- 
tavus A. Evarts, Samuel C. Sample, John B. Niles, 
Ebenezer M. Chamberlain, and Robert Lowry. 

In 1833 Benjamin McCaity was probate judge. 

No record of the proceedings of the first court 
have been found for this work, but for some sixty- 
eight years civil and criminal cases have been dis- 
posed of, year by year, for the most part, it is to be 
hoped, not only according to law but equity. 

The judges of the La Porte Circuit, after 185 1 to 
1880, were: Judges Stanfield, Dewitt, Osborn, Stan- 
held, and Noyes. 

2. Next, as to its organization, in the order of 
time, was White County, organized by act of the Leg- 
islature July 19, 1834. On that day county commis- 
sioners already appointed met at the house of George 
A. Spencer, and formed four townships and three 
commissioners' districts. These townships were 
called Prairie, Big Creek, Jackson, and Union. Elec- 
tions for justices of the peace, those necessary officers 
in civil government, were ordered to be held at the 
houses of William Woods, George A. Spencer, Daniel 
Dale, and M. Gray, in August, 1834. 

On September 5, 1834, the county seat was lo- 
cated by three commissioners, and, evidently remem- 
bering Thomas Jefferson as the early American 
'"sage," the place was named Monticello. The first 
term of the White County Circuit Court was held in 
October, 1834, at the house of George A. Spencer. 



100 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Only the associate judges were "on the bench." The 
sheriff was Aaron Hicks; clerk, William Sill. No 
cases were tried. Business postponed till the April 
term in 1835. J onn R- Porter was then present as 
presiding judge. Seven indictments were returned. 
One was for retailing intoxicating drink to Indians; 
one for illegally marking hogs; and one for setting 
fire to a prairie. 

In these years were three judges, two called asso- 
ciate or side judges, and these, having little to do, 
were not required to be lawyers or to have much 
knowledge of law. Their opinions as to justice and 
right were of value. 

The county thus commencing its civil life was 
named after Colonel Isaac White, an Illinois soldier, 
who was killed in the noted battle of Tippecanoe. Its 
area is five hundred and four square miles. There 
were, at its first settlement, oak openings ; some tim- 
ber land ; and, in the southwestern part, prairie. It 
contained some limestone rock, and some shale of 
what the geologists call the Devonian age, and "un- 
derlying lime rock of the upper Silurian." The fall 
of the Tippecanoe River is said to be about four feet 
to a mile, and the river furnishes much water power, 
as well as containing many fish. 

3. The third of these counties to have a civil or- 
ganization was Porter, over the area of which as well 
as of that which became Lake County, the county 
commissioners of La Porte County seem to have ex- 
ercised some jurisdiction, having in March, 1835, 
divided it into three townships, Waverly and Morgan 
extending to the center of range six, and Ross includ- 
ing all that lay west of the line running through the 
center of range six. These commissioners also or- 



COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS. 101 

dcrcd an election at that same time to be held in 
these townships. In the returns of this election, for 
Ross Township, one Lake County name is found, 
William B. Crooks, receiving twenty-eight votes for 
justice of the peace. George Cline in Morgan Town- 
ship for the same office received twenty-six votes, and 
in Waverly, Elijah Casteel, eleven. So that, in some 
sort, civil government commenced in 1835 in what be- 
came Porter and also Lake County. (In 1837 Will- 
iam B. Crooks was elected an associate judge for 
Lake County,) 

By an act of the State Legislature it was enacted, 
that after February 1, 1836, a certain "tract of coun- 
try" should "constitute the county of Porter,'' thus 
defined: "Commencing at the northwest corner of 
La Porte County, thence running south to the Kan- 
kakee River, thence west with the bed of said river 
to the center of range 7, thence north to the State 
line, thence east to the place of beginning." It is not 
said, north to Lake Michigan, but to the 'State line." 

At the same session it was enacted, in the same 
act, that "all that part of the country that lies north 
of the Kankakee River and west of the county of 
Porter within the State of Indiana, shall form and con- 
stitute a new county" to be called Lake. 

As sheriff for Porter County Benjamin Saylor was 
appointed, and an election for county officers was held 
February 23, 1836, twenty-six votes were that day 
cast at the house of William Gossett, fifty-five at the 
house of Isaac Morgan, twenty-four at the house of 
Morris Wilson, thirty-five at the house of John Spur- 
lock, and forty at the house of J. G. Jackson. 

Elected as county commissioners were : John 
Safford> Benjamin N. Spencer, and Noah Fonts ; 



102 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

county clerk, George W. Turner; recorder, Cyrus 
Spurlock ; associate judges, L. G. Jackson and James 
Blair. 

The commissioners met April 12, 1836, and di- 
vided the county into ten townships. At that term 
they also ordered elections in each township for jus- 
tices, and appointed three assessors, one John Adams, 
was for the attached territory, Ross Township or Lake 
County. 

In June, 1836, the county seat of Porter County 
was located by three commissioners appointed by the 
State Legislature. They selected a place called Por- 
tersville at that time, where town lots had been laid 
off, but where no house had then been buiit. This 
paper town was on the "southwest quarter of section 
24, township 35 north, range 6 west/' owned by Ben- 
jamin McCarty. This proposed town was represented 
at that time by the Portersville Land Company, of 
which Benjamin McCarty, Enoch [S.] McCarty, John 
Walker, William Walker, James Laughlin, John Say- 
lor, Abram A. Hall, and J. F. D. Lanier were mem- 
bers. 

"How the land company had its origin is now a 
matter of conjecture." "Whether the other members 
of the company bought their shares from Benjamin 
McCarty, or whether they were a gift to them in order 
to secure their influence, is not known."* Benjamin 
McCarty, who had been probate judge in La Porte 
County, who was afterwards prominent in Lake 
County, was fortunate in securing land in the cen- 
ter of the county. 



*Rev. Robert Beer in " Porter and Lake," 1882. 



COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS. 103 

In October, 1836, was Held the first Porter County 
court, presiding judge, Samuel C. Sample.* This 
court was held in the house of John Saylor, in the 
new county seat, where before the year, 1836, closed, 
there were, it is said, eight houses, some made of logs 
and some small frame buildings. 

4. Next in the order of organization was the 
County of Lake, already named by the Legislature, 
and declared by an act of Legislature January 18, 
1837, to be an independent county after February 15, 
1837. 

Lake County, therefore, commenced its independ- 
ent, organic existence February 16, 1837. March 8, 
Henry Wells was commissioned as sheriff, and an 
election for county officers was held March 28. As 
illustrating the mail facilities of those days it is on 
record that "a special messenger, John Russell, was 
sent to Indianapolis to obtain the appointment of a 
sheriff and authority to hold an election. He made 
the trip on foot and outstripped the mail.* 

Officers elected March 28, 1837: — 

William Clark and William B. Crooks, associate 
judges ; Amsi L. Ball, Stephen P. Stringham, Thomas 
Wiles, commissioners ; W. A. W. Holton, recorder ; 
Solon Robinson, clerk; John Russell, assessor. 

The county had been divided into three townships, 
North, Center, and South, before its organization; 
justices of the peace were elected for each township; 
"In North Township, Peyton Russell ; in Center, Hor- 
ace Taylor, at Cedar Lake, Milo Robinson; and in 
the South, F. W. Bryant. At the August election, 



♦Solon Robinson was a juror. 
♦Lake County, 1872. 



104 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Luman A. Fowler was chosen for sheriff and Robert 
Wilkinson for probate judge.* 

In October of this year the first county circuit court 
was held by Judge Sample and Associate Judge Clark. 
A log building, designed for a court house, and long 
afterward used for that and other purposes, was built 
in the summer of 1837 by Solon Robinson and his 
brother, Milo Robinson. In 1839 commissioners ap- 
pointed, as was customary, by the Legislature, located 
the county seat at Liverpool, on Deep River, in the 
northwestern part of the county, on section 24, town- 
ship 36, range 8, about three miles from the county 
line and four from Lake Michigan. Dr. Calvin Lilley, 
on the northeast bank of the Red Cedar Lake, and 
Solon Robinson, at his village, named at first Lake 
Court House, had both been applicants, along with 
George Earle, of Liverpool, for the location. There 
was so much dissatisfaction among the settlers at the 
idea of having their county seat in a corner of the 
county, that a new location was ordered. 

In the meantime Dr. Lilley died, and his place 
came into the hands of Judge Benjamin McCarty, 
who had been successful in giving a county seat lo- 
cation to Porter County, and was now, with his large 
family, a resident in Lake. He laid off town lots, 
called his home town West Point, and was against 
Solon Robinson a competitor for the new location. 
But he was not now in the center of the new county, 
Solon Robinson was ; and the commissioners, Jesse 
Tomlinson and Edward Moore, of Marion County, 
Henry Barclay, of Pulaski, Joshua Lindsey, of White, 
and Daniel Doale, of Carroll County, determined 

*There were two pioneers named Robert Wilkinson. 

T. H. B. 



COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS. 105 

that this time the location should be in the center 
of the county. They therefore located the county seat 
at Lake Court House, which soon after took the name 
of Crown Point. This was in June, 1840. Solon 
Robinson and Judge William Clark were trie pro- 
prietors of the new town, which was on section 8, 
township 34, range 8, as near as could well be to the 
"geographical center of the county." Area of Lake 
County, according to Solon Robinson, "five hundred 
and eight sections of land, about four hundred of 
which are dry tillable ground."* 

5. Jasper. This county, but then including the 
present Newton and Benton counties, was organized 
in 1838. It contained then an area of thirteen hundred 
square miles, and the southern part, which in 1840 
became Benton County, was said to include some 
of the best land in Indiana. Then the large sweep 
of the Grand Prairie came in at Parrish Grove, and 
in 1848 this was from "Sugar" to that grove almost 
a perfect wild of very fertile, unbroken prairie.* 

In 1838, the Indians roamed over it "almost un- 
disturbed in all directions," dotted only here and 
there, was this broad area, "by a solitary cabin." 

In January, 1838, the county commissioners, ap- 
pointed, met at Robert Alexander's in Parrish Grove. 
They ordered that the courts should afterwards be 
held at George W. Spitler's, if the voters consented, 
and for some time at Spitler's home the courts were 



♦Lake County Claim Register. 

*I crossed this prairie region, staid over night in this 
grove in the fall of 1848, on the way from the Red Cedar 
Lake to Crawfordsville, and it was a memorable journey. 

T..H. B. 



106 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

held, till of Jasper County proper, Rensselaer became 
the county seat. 

In March, 1839, two townships were marked out 
by the commissioners, one called Newton, the other 
Pinkamink, and an election for May 1, was ordered, 
to be held at the house of Joseph D. Yeoman, in New- 
ton, and at the house of William Donahoe, in Pink- 
amink. 

The first session of the Jasper circuit court was 
held at Spitler's, now in Newton County, Judge Isaac 
Naylor presiding; Joseph A. Wright, afterward Gov- 
ernor of Indiana, prosecuting attorney; George W. 
Spitler, clerk; associate judges, James T. Timmons 
and Matthew Terwilliger. Present as an attorney at 
this first term of court was Rufus A. Lockwood, after- 
ward a noted lawyer who established the claim of 
John C. Fremont to his Mariposa estate receiving for 
his fee one hundred thousand dollars. 

The first county commissioners were, Joseph 
Smith, Amos W T hite, and Frederick Renoyer. This 
first court room in George W. Spitler's house is said 
to have been sixteen feet square, with the ordinary 
puncheon floor, on which at night the judges, lawyers, 
and jury all lodged. In February, 1839, was held the 
first session of the Jasper Probate Court. Record: 
"Adjourned — there being no business before the 
court." In April, 1840, a place at first called Newton, 
afterwards, Rensselaer, became the county seat. 

The first marriage was in the Renoyer Settlement, 
the ceremony being performed by Squire Jones, of 
Mud Creek, whose home was thirty miles distant, and 
the license having been obtained at Williamsport, in 
Warren County, south of what became Benton 
County, fifty miles from the house' of the Renoyers. 



COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS. 107 

The first grist mill was erected in 1840, by James C. 
Van Rensselaer, which was considered, at that time, 
the best mill northwest of Logansport. Dr. John 
Clark is named as the first physician. 

Jasper County, in 1840, comprising then the pres- 
ent counties of Newton, Benton, and Jasper, returned 
138 polls, assessed at $20,347. As late as 1850 the 
State Gazetteer said: "J as P er is the largest county 
in the State and contains about 975 square miles ; but 
Beaver "Lake, the Kankakee Marshes, and the Grand 
Prairie, occupy so large a portion of it that its settle- 
ment and improvement have hitherto proceeded 
slowly." In 1840 the population was 1,267; m I ^5° 
about 3,000." 

The principal early settlements were five : the set- 
tlement at the Rapids of the Iroquois ; the Forks Set- 
tlement, at the union of the Iroquois and Pinkamink ; 
the Blue Grass Settlement ; the Carpenter Settlement, 
which became afterward, Remington ; and the Saltillo 
and Davidsonville Settlement. The State road from 
Williamsport to Winamac went through Saltillo. This 
settlement was made about 1836. John Gillam and 
Joseph Mcjimsey early settlers. 

The area of Jasper after Newton was set off was 
reduced to five hundred and fifty square miles. It 
was named after Sergeant Jasper, of Marion's Band 
in the time of the Revolution. What are called by 
some of the scientific students, ancient river beds, lie 
between the Kankakee and the Iroquois valleys. 
These are from three hundred to twelve hundred feet 
wide, with low ridges of white and yellow sand on 
each side. Burr oak, white oak, hickory, and other 
trees are a native growth. White Sulphur springs are 
near Rensselaer and there is also an artesian well of 



108 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



sulphureted water. The land lies over a bed of lime- 
stone of what the geologists call the Upper Silurian 
age. From the surface outcrop lime is burned, and 
lower down good sand rock for building is obtained. 
Groves of sugar maple where the Indians made sugar 
were along the Iroquois River. 

6. Pulaski. This county was organized by act 
of the Legislature, February 18, 1839. Governor 
Wallace appointed George P. Terry for sheriff. At 
the May election Peter Demoss, John A. Davis, and 
Jesse Coppick were chosen for commissioners, John 
Pearson for clerk, and John A. Davis for recorder. 

This county was named in honor of Count Pulaski, 
one of the noble Polanders who aided the Americans 
in the War of the Revolution, who fell at the assault 
upon Savannah in 1779. Many are familiar with Long- 
fellow's poem ''Pulaski's Banner." Names in our 
land often come into singular companionship. The 
place selected for the county seat of Pulaski bears the 
name Winamac, the name of a Pottawatomie Indian 
chief, whose place of residence on the Tippecanoe 
River had been selected for a town by a company of 
men of whom- the following names have been found : 
John Pearson, Wm. Polk, J. Jackson, John Brown 
and John B. Niles. Their offer the commissioners 
accepted and there located the county seat, May 6, 
1839. It is said that the wife of chief Winamac was 
a white woman who had been made a captive in her 
girlhood. 

The bones of Winamac, it is further said, now re- 
pose beneath the Methodist meeting house in the 
town which perpetuates his name. 

The surface of this county is mainly quite level. 
Into the southwestern extends an arm of the Grand 
Prairie. 



COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS. 109 

In the eastern part was originally timber, walnut 
ash, oak, and other valuable timber growth. Then, 
going westward, came oak openings. The prairie re- 
gion, with many "fly meadows," was next. The small 
prairies were called, Dry, Northwestern, Fox Grape, 
Pearsons, and Olivers. Deer, other game and fur 
bearing animals were abundant. Markets were dis- 
tant. Eastward was the Wabash & Erie Canal, after 
that was opened up for business and trade, which was 
the nearest grain and other produce market. The 
next was Michigan City or Chicago, ninety-two miles 
distant and rivers and marshes and sand and mud be- 
tween, and not one "gravel road." Cattle raising, al- 
most of necessity, became the great occupation. They 
could transport themselves to market. There was a 
mill in Carroll County and one at Logansport, in Cass 
County, to which the early settlers had access. 

A record of the first court has not been found. 

7. Starke County has an area of three hundred 
and six square miles. It was named after a general 
of the Revolution. It was organized by act of the 
Legislature taking it out from Marshall County. In 
April, 1850, county commissioners were elected. John 
W. P. Hopkins, George Esty, William Parker. They 
met at the house of Mrs. Rachel A. Tillman, on the 
south bank of Yellow River. Her house was used 
for county purposes for some years. The next county 
officers elected were: Sheriff, Jacob I. W ampler; 
Auditor, J. G. Black ; Clerk, Stephen Jackson, Senior ; 
Recorder, Jacob Bozarth; Treasurer, Jacob Tillman; 
County Agent, C. S. Tibbits. 

May 19, 185 1, was held the first term of the Starke 
Circuit Court. Held at Mrs. Tillman's. Judge E. M. 
Chamberlain ; associates, Samuel Burk and George 



110 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Milroy. One indictment was found. That was for 
hog stealing and the defendant was acquitted. Hog 
stealing in those days was very different from horse 
stealing. 

April i, 1850, the county seat was located. There 
was then no town wnere the place was selected, but 
town lots were laid out in June and the place was 
called Knox. 

Some of the first things in Starke County, accord- 
ing to the records found, were the following: 

The first boy born, Tipton Lindsay, 1836. The 
first burial in the county was of Thomas Robb, who 
was frozen to death while out hunting and was buried 
in a canoe. The first cnurch building was erected 
by the United Brethren in 1853 ; the second was built 
by the Methodists in Knox in 1856. The first minis- 
ters in the county were, "Elder Munson," Methodist ; 
"Elder Ross, United Brethren; and Rev. James Peele, 
"Christian." The first physicians, 185 1, Dr. Solomon 
Ward, Dr. Baldwin, Dr. Charles Humphreys. First 
lawyers, 1852, Judge Willoughby, M. McCormick. 

The first paper, the Starke County Press, pub- 
lished May, 1861, Joseph A. Berry, editor. Demo- 
cratic ; succeeding editors, James H. Adair, Napoleon 
Rogers, William Burns, Boyles & Good, and Oliver 
Musselman. The name Press was changed to Ledger. 

8. The last of our eight divisions to become an in- 
dependent county was Newton. Area about four hun- 
dred and twenty-five square miles. 

In December, 1857, a petition was presented to the 
Jasper County Board of Commissioners that the area 
in ranges 8, 9, and 10, from township 26, to the Kan- 
kakee River, might become a new county. The peti- 
tion was granted, and Thomas R. Barker was ap- 



COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS. Ill 

pointed by the Jasper board as a sheriff, empowered 
to administer the oath of office to the new county of- 
ficers April 21, i860. In December, 1859, a place 
called Kent had been selected for the new county seat, 
a place afterward called Kentland, and at this time 
containing only two buildings. Here the elected of- 
ficers met to take the oath of office. They were : Will- 
iam Russell, Michael Coffelt, Thomas R. Barker, 
commissioners ; Zachariah Spitler, clerk ; Alexander 
Sharp, auditor ; Samuel McCullough, treasurer ; Elijah 
J. Shriver, sheriff ; A. W. Shideler, surveyor. In i860 
a court house was built costing eighteen hundred 
dollars. The first term of court was held August 27, 
i860. Charles H. Test, judge; John L. Miller, prose- 
cuting attorney. 

It thus appears that not until i860 were all the 
eight counties of North-Western Indiana independent 
and separate as counties, each with its own civil juris- 
diction. 

The years of organization and commencement of 
courts, lawyers, judges, juries, and civil cases, were: 
1832, 1834, 1836, 1837, 1838, 1839, ^o, and i860. 

The years of settlement commenced : La Porte, 
1829; White, 1829; Pulaski, 1830; Newton, 1832; 
Porter, 1833; Lake, 1834; Jasper, 1834; Starke, 1835. 



CHAPTER VII. 



OUR LAKES AND STREAMS. 

The counties of Lake and Porter, if extending 
northward to the boundary line of Indiana, have in 
their limits a good many square miles of the area of 
Lake Michigan. And when the pioneers came that 
water was very clear and pure. No sewers from cities, 
no streams of filth, no decaying garbage, had gone 
into its waters. But besides quite a share in that great 
lake, there were in 1830 many small* beautiful lakes, 
with clear, pure water, the homes in summer, or in 
the spring and autumn time, of wild fowl, and a con- 
tinuous home for muskrats, for mink, and some of 
them for otter. In La Porte County the number of 
small lakes has been given from fifty up to one hun- 
dred, but many of these, probably, were properly 
marshes with some open, or clear water in the center. 

In a marsh proper, a prairie marsh, grass grows, 
sometimes rushes, sometimes even pond lilies ; but the 
larger marshes in early times usually had in the cen- 
ter open water where there was no grass, and in this 
open water one pair or more o? wild ducks might 
generally be found in the springtime. 

The more noted and the larger lakes of La Porte 
County are : Hudson, Pine, Clear, Stone, Fish, and 
Mud lakes. Fish Lake, in Lincoln Township, has 
three divisions, Upper Mud, 'Upper Fish, and Lower 
Mud. Mud Lake proper is an expansion of the Kan- 



OUR LAKES AND STREAMS. 118 

kakee River, as also is English Lake, which is between 
La Porte and Starke counties. 

The streams of La Porte are mostly small, the Lit- 
tle Kankakee, Mill Creek, these entering the Kan- 
kakee; Trail Creek, Spring Creek, and many small 
ones in Cool Spring, Springfielci, and Galena town- 
ships, flowing northward to Lake Michigan. 

In describing Lincoln Township General Packard 
says : "Fish Lake, near the center of Lincoln, is of 
very peculiar shape. It is divided into four parts con- 
nected by narrow passages or straits, each of which 
have received distinctive names. The extreme upper 
part is called Upper Mud Lake, and is nearly circular 
in form with the outlet towards the northwest into 
Upper Fish Lake. This part is much larger, and 
curves so as almost to double back upon itself and has 
its outlet towards the southwest into Fish Lake which 
is almost one mile in length, and is connected by a nar- 
row passage with Lower Mud Lake. The outlet of 
the entire body is into the Little Kankakee. Upper 
Mud Lake is on the south side of section sixteen; 
Upper Fish Lake is in sections sixteen and seven- 
teen; Fish Lake is mostly in section twenty; Lower 
Mud Lake is in section twenty and twenty-nine. 
There are several other smaller lakes in Lincoln, iso- 
lated and having no outlet. 7 ' 

In Porter County are some sixteen small lakes, the 
more noted ones being Flint Lake, Clear Lake, Mud 
Lake, Lake Eliza, Long Lake, Quinn Lake, Bull's 
Eye Lake, and Sager's Lake. The streams are : The 
Calumet coming from La Porte County and flow- 
ing across into Lake, Fort Creek, Fish Creek, Coffee 
Creek, and Salt Creek, flowing northward; Wolf 



114 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Creek, Sandy Hook Creek, and Crooked Creek, flow- 
ing into the Kankakee. 

In Lake County are not many lakes. Berry Lake, 
Lake George, and part of Wolf Lake, are in the north- 
west ; part of Long Lake is in the northeast ; the Red 
Cedar Lake, the most noted one and the most beauti- 
ful one, six miles southwest from Crown Point ; 
Fancher Lake, Lake Seven, and Lemon Lake, are the 
other lakes of this county. "Cedar Lake" is the name 
commonly given to the lake named above, called in 
this work Red Cedar Lake, to distinguish it from a 
lake in Starke County called Cedar Lake. But to 
avoid the confusion of similar names the Starke 
County lake has of late been called Bass Lake. Both 
these lakes are pleasure resorts. On the Lake County 
Cedar Lake, also called "The Lake of the Red 
Cedars," is Monon Park, which may need some fur- 
ther mention. The streams of Lake County are : The 
noted Calumet, Deep River, Turkey Creek, and Deer 
Creek, whose waters reach Lake Michigan ; and Eagle 
Creek, Cedar Creek, and West Creek, Stoney Creek, 
Spring Run, and Willow Brook, also a little stream 
fed by springs, Plum Brook, the waters of which reach 
the Kankakee River, and so pass on to the Missis- 
sippi. 

Passing across the Kankakee the principal lakes of 
Newton County are or were : Beaver Lake, Little 
Lake, and Mud Lake. 

Beaver Lake covered nearly one township, num- 
bered 30 in range 9. It was found to be shallow and 
was drained several years ago by a deep ditch some 
six miles in length taking the water into the Kan- 
kakee River. Twelve feet was, in places, the depth of 
the lake. The boys and men obtained quantities of 



OUR LAKES AND STREAMS. 115 

fish when it was drained. The great ditches on each 
side of the Kankakee River have changed very much 
the natural water beds and courses. 

One of the streams is Beaver Creek. Not far away 
is the belt of woodland known as Beaver Woods. 
These names indicate the existence here once of 
beaver, and here was quite a favorite Indian resort. 
Jasper County has few if any real lakes. It has one 
considerable stream called Carpenter's Creek, also 
Curtis Creek. The Iroquois, with its tributary, the 
Pinkamink, is its river, and this flows across Newton 
County into Illinois. It now runs into the Kanka- 
kee ; but according to the earlier geographies the Kan- 
kakee discharged its waters into the Iroquois. 

Pulaski County seems not to be a region of lakes, 
but it has for its large streams the beautiful Tippe- 
canoe River and the large Monon Creek. 

White County also has few or no proper lakes, but 
its streams are many. Besides the Tippecanoe, there 
are the Big Monon, the Little Monon, Moot's Creek, 
Pike Creek, Honey Creek, Big Creek, and Little 
Mound Creek. 

Starke County has one quite noted lake formerly 
called Cedar Lake; for the last few years it is called 
Bass Lake. It is in length, lying nearly northeast and 
southwest, about two and a half miles and about one 
mile and a half across its southwestern expanse. Its 
shape is quite different from the Red Cedar Lake 
of Lake County, although like that lake it has 
abounded in fish and is something of a pleasure resort. 

The other lakes of Starke County are: Koontz 
Lake, in the northeast, about three-quarters of a mile 
in length, Lake Rothermel and Hartz Lake in the 
southwest corner of the county, one on section 35, 



116 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

one on 36, and Round Eake three miles northwest 
of Bass or Cedar Lake. 

The streams of Starke are now for the most part 
turned into ditches. Their beauty of course is spoiled. 

So far as beauty is concerned, these large and 
small ditches which have cut up the entire Indiana 
part of the Kankakee Valley region, have spoiled what 
was once, in its natural water ways, attractive and 
picturesque. Although not like mountain streams 
and rivulets, the water in our streams was usually 
clear, their natural courses were winding, giving the 
curved lines of beauty, and the green herbage that 
fringed them was abundant. Now, nearly all is 
changed by the spade and the dredging machine of 
man's invention. The water in springtime runs off 
in straight lines, man's object being to get it from the 
land into the river and ocean as quickly as possible. 
He wants the use of all the land surface. And so 
thousands and thousands of acres where once the wild 
fowls had their resorts and where muskrats and mink 
and otter had their homes, are now pasture land and 
oat fields, and corn fields, and the ditches mar the 
landscape's beauty. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE LAKE MICHIGAN WATERSHED LINE. 

As we leave the lakes and streams, the natural and 
artificial water courses, it may be a matter of interest 
to some, in another generation, to have the dividing 
line between Lake Michigan waters and Mississippi 
River waters traced with some degree of definiteness, 
for the drying up of water courses and the draining 
by means of ditches have already almost consigned to 
oblivion the names and the winding bed.s of some of 
the small streams that were well known to the Illinois 
and Indiana pioneers. This line will not be given as 
though taken from a surveyor's field notes, yet it will 
be sufficiently accurate for the purpose for which it is 
here inserted. 

The substance of it may be found in a published 
volume of the papers read before the Indiana Acad- 
emy of Science, but this is not taken from that vol- 
ume. 

This line, commencing at the head waters of the 
Des Plaines River in Wisconsin, a few miles from the 
shore of Lake Michigan, passes southward, winding 
slightly, passing within eight miles of Lake Michi- 
gan, and then, just west of Chicago, passes by the 
south arm of the peculiar Chicago River, and going 
still southward passes west of Blue Island eight 
miles west of the Indiana State line. It then passes 
southwest around the head waters of Rock Creek, and 



118 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

then southeastward around Thorn Creek, which is its 
most southern point in Illinois and is near Eagle 
Lake, two miles west of the Indiana line and directly 
west of the Lake County village of Brunswick and 
twenty-three miles south of the State line monument 
on the shore of Lake Michigan. The line now passes 
northward and enters Lake County in section 36, 
township 35, range 10, near the head waters of West 
Creek. It then bears southeastward to a high 
ridge one-fourth of a mile north of Red 
Cedar Lake, and passes along a low, curv- 
ing ridge, on which was once a wagon 
road, and which is the most beautiful and well de- 
fined portion of the line in Lake County. It passes 
now three miles over timber table-land, winding 
slightly, three miles eastward and nearly two miles 
south of the center of Crown Point, it passes across 
section 17, then 16, township 34, range 8, and then 
south on the east side of the old Stoney Creek. It 
then passes east across sections 35 and 36 and into 
section 31, where is now LeRoy. It here turns north- 
ward, having reached its extreme southern limit in 
Indiana, now not quite eighteen miles from Lake 
Michigan. Winding here around the head of the 
south branch of Deep River, passing between that 
and Eagle Creek, bearing eastward, south of Deer 
Creek, and northward, it leaves Lake County almost 
due east of the center of Crown Point, distant seven 
and a half miles and nearly a mile and a half south of 
its point of entrance into the county. It soon passes 
north of a little lake from which flows Eagle Creek. 
It now passes eastward and then a little south, wind- 
ing around Salt Creek, three miles and a half south 
of Valparaiso between ranges 5 and 6, having crossed 



THE LAKE MICHIGAN WATERSHED LINE. 119 

section 12 in range 5. It passes, now, about due north 
just east of Valparaiso to Flint Lake, three miles 
north of the center of that city and the source of its 
water supply, and winding around the north of Flint 
Lake it passes on in a northwest direction to West- 
ville, and then passing northeastward to a ridge two 
miles north of La Porte and eleven miles from Lake 
Michigan, which ridge is said to be, according to 
some barometer, two hundred and seventy feet above 
Lake Michigan. Passing north of the lakes around 
the city of La Porte, and north of the head waters of 
the Little Kankakee, and near the line of the railroad 
track, near by the village of Rolling Prairie, passing 
eastward but a few miles from the north boundary 
of Indiana, it comes into Portage Township, St. Jo- 
seph County, where on the portage between the Kan- 
kakee and St. Joseph rivers this notice of it will end. 
Here seems to be a suitable place to notice those 
"lake ridges" which cross La Porte, Porter, and Lake 
counties, "which are nearly parallel to the present 
lake shore." According to Professor Cox they mark 
the ancient shore lines from which, time after time, 
the lake has receded. Five of these continuous sand 
ridges Professor Cox has counted. The last one in- 
ward is that ridge along which now runs the water- 
shed line, the highest ridge of land in La Porte 
County. The theory of formation of these ridges is 
this : That the sand which the dashing lake waves 
cast upon the beach, sparkling in their apparent play- 
fulness sometimes as they dance along, and then 
breaking in their fury far up on the beach when the 
fierce north wind sends them rolling in, in their 
might, this sand soon becomes dry. "Then the wind 
takes it and drives it like drifting snow to the first 



120 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

barrier of trees and bushes, when it is checked, and be- 
gins to accumulate, forming a ridge. The vegeta- 
tion, well rooted, reproduces itself, growing to the 
top as the sand rises, and finally a range of hills is the 
result of the combined action of wave and wind on 
the moving particles of sand." 

In this way, most probably, was that quite large 
ridge of sand formed at the northeast of the Red 
Cedar Lake in Lake County, by the influence of the 
strong southwest winds that so often prevail, and not, 
as some have imagined, by the melting there of some 
great iceberg. 

All the sand ridges in Lake County seem to be 
due to the action of water, or of wind and water com- 
bined. Most of them lie north, but some are south 
of the watershed. 

Professor Cox found no evidences that the lakes 
around La Porte were ever a part of our Lake Michi- 
gan; but that its southern limit there was the high 
ridge distant now eleven miles. 




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X 



CHAPTER IX. 



TOWNSHIPS AND STATISTICS. 

The maps in this book wiTT give the names and 
show the locations of the townships in some of the 
counties ; but they may fittingly all be named here. 

Of La Porte County they are: Commencing at 
the northeast, Hudson, Galena, Springfield, Michi- 
gan, Cool Spring, Center, Kankakee, Wills, Lincoln, 
Pleasant, Scipio, New Durham, Clinton, Noble, 
Union, Johnson, Hanna, Cass, and Dewey — 19. 

Of Porter County: Pine, Westchester, Portage, 
Liberty, and Jackson; Washington. Center, and Union; 
Porter and Morgan; Pleasant and Boone — 12. 

Of Lake they are: Hobart, Calumet, North; 
St. Johns, Ross; Winfield, Center, Hanover; West 
Creek, Cedar Creek, and Eagle Creek — 11. 

Of Newton: Lincoln, Lake, McClellan, Colfax; 
Jackson, Beaver ; Washington, Iroquois ; Grant and 
Jefferson — 10. 

Of Jasper: Kankakee, AVheatfield, Keener. 
Union, Walker, Gillam; Barkley, Newton, Marion, 
Hanging Grove; Milroy, Jordan, Carpenter — 13. 

Of White : Cass, Liberty, Monon ; Princeton, 
Honey Creek; Union, Jackson; West Point, Big 
Creek, Prairie, and Round Grove — 11. 

Of Pulaski : Tippecanoe, Franklin, Rich Grove, 
Cass ; White Post, Jefferson, Monroe, Harrison ; Van 
Buren, Indian Creek, Beaver, and "Salem — 12, 



122 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Of Starke the townships are : Oregon, Davis ; 
Jackson, Center, Washington; North Bend, Califor- 
nia; Wayne and Rail Road — 9. In all 97 townships. 
Having looked at some of the physical features of 
this region, having looked over the names of some of 
the early settlers, having reviewed some characteris- 
tics of pioneer life, and having seen the beginnings of 
organic civil life, before entering upon the records 
and changes in the last half of this century, the fol- 
lowing table, which will show the growth of twenty 
years of pioneer life on the north side and south 
side of the Kankakee River, is worthy of attention. 
Population, Farms, and Families in 1850 — 
Counties. Pop. Farms. Families. 

Lake 3,991 423 715 

Porter 5,234 467 885 

La Porte 12,145 1,116 2,150 

Starke 557 53 101 

Puiaski 2,595 2 ^6 454 

White 4761 458 825 

Jasper (then including New- 
ton) 3,540 343 592 

Total 3 2 > 82 3 3^46 5>7 22 

At this time there were in these counties, included 
in the population as given above, of free blacks, in 
Lake 1, in Porter 5, in La Porte 78, in Starke o, in 
Pulaski o, in White 9, in Jasper, including Newton 1. 
It seems families were larger then than now, there 
being between five and six members in each family. 
We now average about four in a family. 

Our towns at this date were all small. In 1850, 
the largest one, Michigan City, had a population of 
999, ranking next in the State to Columbus, which 



TOWNSHIPS AND STATISTICS. 123 

then had as its population 1,008. At that time New 
Albany, the largest city in the State, had of inhabi- 
tants 8,181, and Indianapolis, ranking second, 8,091. 
There were then in Indiana twenty-three other towns, 
counting Columbus, with a population above one 
thousand, but only nine others having over two thou- 
sand. The railroads had not cut up North-Western 
Indiana when the census of 1850 was taken. Indiana 
then had ninety-one counties. 



CHAPTER X. 



MODERN OR RAILROAD LIFE— 1850 to 1900. 

With the opening of the last half of the Nineteenth 
Century there came from the eastward railroad build- 
ers, pushing their roads onward to the young city of 
Chicago; and before these roads could reach that 
city they must cross the counties of La Porte, Porter, 
and Lake. When the children and the deer and the 
water fowls heard the whistle of the engines that, drew 
the freight trains, pioneer life came to an end. 

A short review of that variety of life has, in a former 
chapter, been given ; and in this, by means of contrast 
and of historic records, an attempt will be made to 
give some true impression of the railroad life or mod- 
ern life of the last fifty years. 

So soon as these earliest roads, the Michigan Cen- 
tral and Michigan Southern, passed through, Michi- 
gan City and Chicago, where the schooners could take 
away grain, were no longer the only markets, for La 
Porte, and Old Porter or Chesterton, and Lake Sta- 
tion, and Dyer, were railroad stations where goods 
could be landed and from which grain could be 
shipped. 

Miss Florence Pratt, in a paper on the Presby- 
terian history, in "Lake County 1884," assigning a 
reason why the church building, commenced in 1845, 
was not completed till 1847, sa y s : "But money was 
very scarce, the country wild with Very few roads 



MODERN OR RAILROAD LIFE. 125 

or horses. Lumber was hard to get, and must be 
brought on ox-carts from Chicago or Porter County." 
And so for twelve years the people of Crown Point 
held their religious meetings in their homes and in 
their log court house ; yet, before they heard the first 
railroad whistle, they did "arise and build" two frame 
meeting houses. But now, when the railroad stations 
became shipping points, lumber was brought in and 
the true era of frame buildings, for dwellings and for 
churches, commenced. The log cabins, comfortable 
as they had been made, became out-houses, stables 
and cribs and granaries, and the family homes were 
clean, new, sightly, frame dwellings with ceiled or 
plastered walls, with good brick chimneys an outside 
that could be painted and inside walls that were not 
daubed with clay. Carpets soon were on some of the 
floors, large mirrors leaned out from the white walls, 
furniture such as the log cabins had not sufficient 
room to contain now graced the more spacious apart- 
ments, instruments of music began to be seen and 
heard in many a home, and comforts and even luxur- 
ies found their way wherever the freight cars could 
unload goods and take on grain and hay, and cattle 
and sheep and hogs, and butter and eggs and poultry. 
Soon there was much to be sent off, and much, for 
all the farming community, was brought back in re- 
turn. Changes in modes of living, in dress, in furni- 
ture, and then in farming implements, were not, of 
course, instantaneous, but they came very rapidly 
along. Instead of beating out the wheat and oats 
with flails, or treading it out on smooth ground floors 
with oxen or horses according to the old Oriental 
method, as was needful to be done at first, thresh- 
ing machines came to the farms, even before the 



126 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

railroads were built. And then, instead of cleaning 
out the chaff by means of the wind, fanning mills 
came into use, and one was needed on every farm; 
and next the separator machine came, and so one im- 
provement followed another as the harvest times came 
round. For a few years in each July many would go 
from distant neighborhoods to the large grain fields 
on Door Prairie, a good cradler receiving sometimes 
two dollars for a day's work, and one who could 
rake and bind and keep up with the cradler receiving 
the same. From three to four acres a day was a good 
day's work. But the mowers came, the reapers came, 
unloaded from the cars they were taken out to the 
farms, and men no longer swung the cradles hour 
after hour and day after day. And, at length, the 
last triumph of human skill in this line seemed to be 
reached when the great harvesting machines came, 
the self-binders, cutting the grain, raking it into bun- 
dles, binding those bundles, all done by a machine 
drawn by horses, driven by one man. 

In the earliest years of settlement, and through 
all the pioneer period, oxen were quite generally used 
as draft animals. They were on almost every farm ; 
they drew the plows, the wagons, the harrows, the 
sleds. They were on the roads drawing the heavy 
loads to the market towns. They were strong, pa- 
tient, hardy, quite safe, not taking fright and running 
away, could live on rough food with not much shelter ; 
but generally they were slow. A few could walk, and 
draw a plow, along with ordinary horses, but only a 
few. On the road an ox team did well to make three 
miles an hour. A more true average would probably be 
two and a half miles per hour. It took but a few mo- 
ments to yoke them. The yoke was put on the neck of 



MODERN OR RAILROAD LIFE. 127 

the ox on the right, called the "off ox," first, the bow 
put in its place and keyed ; then the other end of the 
yoke was held up, and it was instructive to see how the 
other ox, when well trained, would walk up and put 
his neck under the yoke, in the proper place for the 
bow to come up under his throat to the yoke, and 
there to be fastened with a wooden, possibly with an 
iron, key. When well treated, they were gentle, pa- 
tient, faithful animals, as for many generations, along 
a line of thousands of years, their predecessors had 
given their strength and endurance, in many lands, to 
the service of man. 

But now, as here the modern railroad era opened, 
and changes in modes of agriculture and living took 
place, horses for farm work and road work began 
largely to take the place of oxen. Mowers and then 
reapers came to the farms as early as 1855 and then 
onward, and for these and all the modern improve- 
ments that followed horses were found to be more 
serviceable. So in some neighborhoods in Lake 
County, the yoke was removed from the necks of the 
oxen as early as 1855 ; in other neighborhoods not 
until 1862 and 1863, when large quantities of beef be- 
gan to be wanted in the country; and when the year 
1870 was reached oxen as working animals had al- 
most disappeared north of the Kankakee River. One 
farmer sold his last yoke for $150. In Jasper and 
Newton and Starke, as newer counties and not feeling 
so soon the influence of the railroads, the use of oxen 
continued into later years. 

There are many children and young people now 
who never saw a yoke of oxen ; many young farmers 
who would not know how to yoke them, to unyoke 
them, or to drive them ; to whom the ox-chains, and 



128 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

the tongue bolts, and the ox-whips for directing the 
movements of three or four yoke of oxen in one team, 
would be quite strange farm furniture. To them, 
many allusions to oxen in sacred and classic story 
have little significance and beauty. Muzzling the 
mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn, they do 
not understand ; of how much land a yoke of oxen 
would plow in a day, they have not much idea. Some 
things we have lost, while many things we have 
gained. Well and faithfully through all the pioneer 
time, these truly noble domestic animals served well 
in their day. Each one, as a rule, had a name, and old 
is the teaching, the ox knoweth his owner, but horses 
and steam and electricity have quite fully taken the 
place now of these once trusty servants of man. Their 
necks are free from the yoke and their shoulders from 
the bow. An ox-yoke is itself a curiosity now. 

Our yokes were generally shorter, heavier, with 
more work put upon them, and not so straight as 
those used in the Pine Belt of the South, where oxen 
still do much heavy work. 

Returning once more to the pioneer period, peo- 
ple travelled then on horseback, or in ox-wagons, and 
in large, two horse wagons which were used for any 
farm purposes. Buggies and carriages had not, to 
much extent, been brought in. But soon, when the 
railroad period opened, the young men purchased 
buggies and trained their horses for the harness in- 
stead of the saddle, and soon the farmers had buggies, 
and in these later years, good covered carriages, so 
that even the stylish carriage and fine horses .of Joseph 
Leiter, then the millionaire, the brother of "the first 
lady of India," who in the summer of 1897 was ac- 
customed to drive every week from Crown Point to the 



MODERN OR RAILROAD LIFE. 129 

Red Cedar Lake, were but little in advance of the car- 
riages and horses of our own citizens who count no 
higher up than into the ten thousands. 

And where once, not so long ago, at our public 
gatherings were the ox teams and heavy farm wagons, 
now, when the hundreds and the thousands gather, 
covered buggies and close carriages are the general 
rule. As La Porte County is the oldest, the most 
populous, the wealthiest of these counties, there, as 
might be expected, costly carriages made their ap- 
pearance first. 

It was quite a struggle for a few years for the 
farmers to make headway and secure the conveniences 
which the railroads supplied, for many were in debt 
for their land, and prices for farm products were 
rather low, and money not very abundant, until the 
changes came from i860 and onward, as the nation 
was entering into the scenes of the great conflict. 
Those who are only about forty-five years of age can- 
not realize how financial matters were managed be- 
fore any "greenbacks" were issued. But since that 
change took place in the currency of the nation, 
changes in prices being connected with it, great im- 
provements have taken place in the homes of the farm- 
ers. Little remains now on the farms of the earlier 
farming implements. The entire mode of planting and 
sowing, of cultivating crops and of gathering, has 
changed. It is singular how so many once familiar 
objects Have disappeared. 

In the more costly and elegant mansions now, 
beautiful and costly and massive, like those in the 
large cities of the land, may be seen elegant furniture, 
costly engravings and beautiful pictures upon the 
walls, on the center tables, papers of various kinds, 



130 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

choice magazines, the best published in the world, 
and near at hand, accessible readily to the family, 
and to visitors, the standard dictionaries and encyclo- 
pedias and large libraries of the noted and standard 
English and American books. There is as yet no 
private dwelling that has cost half a million, but there 
are, even in this corner of Indiana, some few who 
may be called millionaires, although as yet no city is 
here having of inhabitants twenty thousand. About 
fifteen thousand is now the limit. 

- In the counties south of the Kankakee River, rail- 
road life commenced in i860, and not fully until 1865, 
when the road now called the Pan Handle passed 
through Monticello and North Judson direct to Chi- 
cago ; and but a small part of Newton County felt the 
direct influence of the age of steam until the Chicago 
& Eastern Illinois road passed through Morocco in 
1889. Lake Village is yet, as the capital of Florida 
used to be called, ''inland." 

Along these years, from 1850 to 1900, when one 
railroad after another was built across our borders, 
and stations were established nearer to the homes of 
many of the farmers, and villages and towns were 
growing, changes and quite rapid improvements were 
constantly going on among all the farming commu- 
nities. Not only were new farming implements intro- 
duced, not only w r ere much more showy and commod- 
ious dwelling houses and barns and granaries con- 
structed, not only were stylish vehicles often seen in 
the carriage houses of the farmers, but the social life, 
the school life, the church life, all were materially 
changed, and the farmers were, many of them, ac- 
cumulating much property. The domestic animals 
were largely on the increase, except in the exclusively 



MODERN OR RAILROAD LIFE. 131 

grain producing neighborhoods, and such large addi- 
tions had been made to the fixed capital ana also to 
the circulating or loose capital in all this region of 
Indiana, that a stranger, a visitor, might well say, 
this is a largely prosperous, a contented and happy 
community. 

Yet it may after all be questioned whether real 
happiness or satisfaction, as connected with the ac- 
tivities of life, is any greater now, than in the early 
pioneer days. The men and the women and 
the very children were founders and builders 
then, looking eagerly often, surely hopefully for- 
ward, to the times of greater abundance and 
enlarged comforts, which they felt sure would 
come ; but the very activity and effort were 
large elements in the enjoyments of that life. When 
one has reached the position of assured competence 
possessed by one of the grand pioneer men, a mem- 
ber of one of our old settler associations, who ex- 
pressed Himself in this figurative language, that he had 
come to the condition in which he did not care 
''whether school kept or not," it soon becomes evident 
that after all he is not perfectly contented. Well said 
that learned and wise philosopher, Sir William Ham- 
ilton, "It is ever the contest that pleases us and not 
the victory." And he quotes the "great Pascal" as 
saying : "In life we always believe that we are seek- 
ing repose, while in reality, all that we ever seek is 
agitation." And he quotes Jean Paul Richter as say- 
ing: "It is not the goal, but the course, which makes 
us happy." And he quotes, in the same line of senti- 
ment, Malebranche, one of "the profoundest thinkers 
of modern times," as saying : "If I held truth captive 
in my hand, I should open my hand and let it fly, in 



132 Northwestern iKdiana. 

order that I might again pursue and capture it." And 
on this same principle, the enjoyment to be found 
in well directed human activity, if a young man in this, 
our modern railroad life, could choose for himself an 
inherited abundance or a reasonably sure inherited or 
acquired ability to gain for himself that abundance, 
he would do well to let the inherited abundance go. 
Like the philosopher, let truth fly in order to have 
the opportunity to pursue and capture., So here it 
may be repeated, it is quite questionable whether, with 
all the present abundance, the comforts, the luxuries 
of the present, there has come any greater happiness 
than was enjoyed in the old pioneer days. The fact, 
however, is, the prosperous farmers as well as the 
business men in towns and cities are not "sleeping 
in their carriages," to quote a figure from the once 
noted Chesterfield, but are eager and active to still 
gain more and more. Trie pioneer activity was a 
very healthful activity. Perhaps there is a little fever- 
heat connected with the rush of railroad life now. 

To one interested in studying human nature and 
in observing the workings of character, the effects of 
the change of surroundings which the railroad era 
brought were sometimes surprising and sometimes 
? musing. Those who in their log building's had been 
hospitable and courteous, refined and polished in 
manners, continued the same kindly attentions to the 
needs or wishes of others. But some who in their 
log cabins had been hospitable, although unrefined, 
when occupying their well built mansions with plas- 
tered walls and painted surfaces and gilded furniture, 
seemed to forget that ever they were inside of logs 
and mud, and were warmed by the fire connected with 
stick chimneys. But good, common sense character- 



MODERN OR RAILROAD LIFE 133 

ized the majority of those who had known pioneer 
life, and only some of their young people could be 
charged with "putting on airs." 

Bringing comforts, conveniences, luxuries, rail- 
roads also brought some undesirable new features 
into both country and town life. They tended to in- 
crease the number of saloons, to enlarge the bounds 
of Sabbath desecration, to encourage the escape of 
criminals ; and they opened the way for "tramps," a 
class of men unknown in the early days; and con- 
nected with them, if not of them, came "strikes." 
Some actual history of the years 1893 an d 1894 will 
show their great convenience in facilitating transport- 
ation, in aiding travel ; and also show them in con- 
nection with the conduct of a great strike. 

In the year 1893, while the Columbian Exposi- 
tion was open, the citizens of Lake, Porter and La 
Porte counties, enjoyed great facilities for attending 
that remarkable World's Fair, at Jackson Park, and 
witnessing the wealth of beauty and magnificence that 
could be seen that summer in the White City. It was 
estimated that fully two thousand school children 
of Lake County spent some Tittle time in that great 
exposition. A part only of the public schools re- 
ported an attendance ot nine hundred and seventy- 
three. Probably never again will so many people pass 
over Lake County in one month on the railroad lines 
which enter Chicago, as passed in September of 1893. 
The opportunities of that year, the enjoyment of the 
rich life of that summer, can never by thousands in 
northwestern Indiana be forgotten, as for six months, 
so near to their own borders, the great interest was 
concentrated of the civilized world. 

The year of 1894 was vastly different. The fol- 



134 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

lowing quoted paragraph is from the Historical Sec- 
retary's report at the Old Settlers' Association of Lake 
County, read in August, 1894: 

This year has been no ordinary year although 
vastly unlike the last. Over all our land it has been 
a year of uncertainty, of unrest, of some conflict; and, 
to some extent, in all these we of Lake County have 
shared. There have been the remarkable inactivity of 
the American Congress, the great stagnation in min- 
ing and manufactures, the Pullman boycott, the Debs' 
strikes, the miners' strikes, the assassination of the 
French president, and a war commenced between the 
two great powers of Eastern Asia, China and Japan. 
In our narrow limits we have felt but little change 
from these events which have made this year mem- 
orable ; but in the north part of the county for a time 
the civil officers were unable to maintain law and 
order, and United States troops and some eight hun- 
dred state militia upheld the law and secured railroad 
transportation and the passage of the mails in the city 
of Hammond, quelling disturbances also in East Chi- 
cago and Whiting. For a time in Crown Point, on 
both roads, no trains could go through to Chicago, 
and passenger trains lay by here for many hours, re- 
minding us of the scenes during our great snow block- 
ade. The tents of the soldiers, the soldiers them- 
selves on guard duty, the presence of the soldiers with 
their arms in various places, the guard around the 
Erie station, the gatling gun on the platform, caused 
Hammond to appear for a number of days as a city 
under martial law. It was in our county a new expe- 
rience to have almost a regiment of soldiers under 
arms to preserve order, and to be able to reach the 
Erie station passenger room- only as one passed the 
sentry and the corporal of the guard. We may well 
hope that such times w T ill not often come. No mail, 
no travel, no claily papers, no intercourse with Chi- 
cago. Some of the Crown Point groeerymen had 
supplies brought out from Chicago by teams as was 
customary before railroads were built. Happily this 



MODERN OR RAILROAD LIFE. 135 

condition of things did not last long. The President 
of the United States exercised his authority, the gov- 
ernors of Indiana and Illinois asserted theirs, troops 
poured into Chicago, and the gathering of mobs, the 
lawlessness, the destruction of property, the impossi- 
bility of moving trains in or out of the city ceased. 

Historical truth and justice to a part of the citizens 
of Hammond seem to require some further record 
here. In one of the city papers, the heading of the 
article, "To maintain Law," a notice appeared of a 
meeting of citizens of Hammond, in the hall of the 
Sons of Veterans, from which notice some extracts 
and statements are taken. "The first speaker was 
ex-Secretary of State, Charles F. Griffin, who, in a 
speech that was full of patriotism and loyalty, paid a 
graceful compliment to President Cleveland and Gov- 
ernor Matthews." 

He spoke for half an hour, and said, when closing : 

"The law-abiding citizens of this city have been 
outraged and their rights trampled upon. The fair 
name of Hammond and Lake County has been black- 
ened by the work of rioters." "The methods em- 
ployed by the mob that had possession of Hammond 
last week forcibly remind one of the days of bush- 
whacking. It is high time the citizens take action." 

He then read some resolutions, which after dis- 
cussion were adopted, which strongly condemned the 
action of the rioters, their upholders, and of some 
local officials, and which approved heartily the ac- 
tion of the President and of the Governor "in furnish- 
ing military protection to life and property." 

The names of others given as taking an active part 
in this meeting of citizens who pledged themselves 
to the enforcement of law, are the following : Pro- 
fessor W. C. Belman,Rev. F. W. Herzberger, G. P. 



136 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

C. Newman, J. B. Woods, Rev. August Peter, Colonel 
Le Grand T. Meyer, one of the Governor's staff, W. 
G. Friendly, and E. E. Beck, who was chairman of the 
meeting. 

It was a time of no little excitement; the results 
in Chicago were then uncertain; Hammond was the 
same as a part of Chicago in its locality; and some 
who were called Hammond citizens had held a meet- 
ing not long before, heartily endorsing "the conduct" 
of the officials whose action the citizens at this meet- 
ing condemned, and denouncing the sending of troops 
by the President to quell the disturbances. One of the 
resolutions, therefore, as read by Hon. C. F. Griffin, 
contained this strong language : "Resolved, That the 
business men and law abiding citizens of Hammond 
repudiate with disgust and alarm the disloyal senti- 
ments expressed by the resolutions of the so-called 
citizens meeting of last Tuesday, and assert that they 
are not indorsed by the masses of Hammond citizens." 

Quiet was at length restored, the soldiers were 
removed from Hammond, and trains could pass and 
re-pass without molestation. 

In this record of an experience as a part of modern 
railroad life, that life which in its different aspects and 
different stages it is the design of this chapter to de- 
pict, it is not strange that in Hammond at this time 
there should have been two very different positions 
taken ; for, unlike Michigan City and La Porte, which 
were early settled localities, unlike Winamac, Rennse- 
laer, Monticello, and Valparaiso, early settled locali- 
ties all, Hammond, a city so recently having become 
populous, separated from a part of Chicago and so 
from Illinois only by an air line, partakes very little 
in the characteristics of Lake County and of Indiana. 



MODERN OR RAILROAD LIFE. 137 

Geographically in Lake County and in Indiana, few 
of its thousands of inhabitants have a share in the 
traditions and associations, as they had no share in 
the trials and privations and successes, of the earlier 
inhabitants of Northern Indiana, and so, in what is 
called the nature of things, they cannot be expected to 
be identified, to much extent, with the interests of 
Lake County. They form a community of their own, 
and must be expected to have the characteristics of 
the manufacturing portions of Chicago, a part of 
which, locally, Hammond is. But a few descendants 
of quite early settlers, as Charles F. Griffin, A. Murray 
Turner, and others from Crown Point and from old 
settled parts of the county, have homes now in that 
rapidly growing and enterprising city, while the thou- 
sands are, for Lake County and for Indiana, "new 
comers." And this same fact has its bearings in mak- 
ing not only Hammond, but East Chicago and Whit- 
ing with their gathered thousands, quite different from 
the other towns in North-Western Indiana. It should 
receive due consideration from those living in those 
three contiguous cities as well as from those out- 
side, especially as more than one half of the popu- 
lation of Lake County, as claimed, will no doubt this 
year be found inside of those three corporations and 
all living within about three miles of the city limits of 
Chicago. 

It is sufficiently easy to see how natural it was, at 
the time of the great Chicago strike, that two very 
different positions should be taken in Hammond. 

Leaving that not pleasant picture o<f the railroad 
troubles of 1894, other features of this modern life 
claim attention, especially first, the change in social 
life manifested in our various organizations, of which 
mention will be made in another chapter. 



138 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Year by year we have been adding to our organ- 
izations until the contrast has become very great be- 
tween what some would call the delightful pioneer 
times and this advanced, progressive present. To 
take as an illustration the medium sized town of 
Crown Point. In the earlier days, when it was the 
only town in Lake County, there was at first a resi- 
dent Baptist minister, and then, as he soon left, a resi- 
dent Methodist and Presbyterian minister. And the 
Methodist and Presbyterian preachers and Sunday 
schools seemed quite sufficient for the needs of the 
people. The same congregation for a time listened 
to the different ministers, for their services were not 
held at the same hour. There was one temperance 
organization the meetings of which all attended. To 
a great extent all attended the same social gather- 
ings. The people were not divided into classes then 
as they are now. There were some dances which all 
did not attend, but there was a freedom of intercourse 
among all the families and the young people then, 
which would seem strange to the exclusive sets of this 
modern period. And the same free mingling of 
families and of young people extended over the en- 
tire region of all these counties. 

Now, besides nine religious gatherings in Crown 
Point at the same hour, and eight Sunday schools, 
and two Protestant missionary societies and two or 
three Roman Catholic church societies, and a Chris- 
tian Endeavor Society and an Epworth League Chap- 
ter, and a fire company, there are some twenty other 
social or secret orders and clubs and societies; some 
for men alone, some only for women, some for young 
people, some exclusively for girls of one set, some for 
girls of another set, some for boys or children ; and 



MODERN OR RAILROAD LIFE, 139 

so into about forty-five different groups or clusters, 
the children, the young people, the middle-aged men 
and women of the two thousand or more in Crown 
Point are divided up. And many of these meet every 
week. Calls, fashionable, afternoon calls are made, but 
for the style of family visiting once known in the vil- 
lage life there can be no time. The social life of the 
present, where the clubs and societies demand so 
much time, where some have wealth and leisure, and 
others poverty and toil, where into many circles some 
can never enter, must be a life for the whole com- 
munity of some dissatisfaction and unrest. But this 
is modern life; for some almost ceaseless toil, for 
others select parties and club meetings and attention 
to dress and manners and the requirements of what is 
called "society." Some are, and many are not, "so- 
ciety people." 

To produce in the large cities millionaires is one 
of the attendants if not a direct result of railroad life, 
and in connection with millionaires select society, 
inclusive and exclusive ; and the same "society" classi- 
fication goes into the smaller railroad cities and towns 
where wealth is accumulating and organizations for 
pleasure abound. On a smaller scale than New York 
they also have their "400." Perhaps some should not 
be blamed for thinking "the pioneer life was better 
than this !" 

Leaving social life in the form of society so-called, 
it will be pleasant to look now upon the modern as- 
semblies called the institutes, as they enter into the 
social life of these later years in a form quite dif- 
ferent from the clubs and orders and circles. 

1. Teachers' Institutes. 

The first Teachers' Institute, as connected with the 



140 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

public schools in Lake County, was held in 1866 by 
School Examiner W. W. Cheshire. But fourteen 
years before that time, in November, 1852, the real 
first teachers' institute in Lake County was held by 
Rev. W. Townley, and Superintendent Jewel, and 
Mr. Hawkins, of La Porte, assisted by Dr. Boynton, 
who gave lectures illustrated By a manikin. This in- 
stitute was in connection with a private school under 
the management of Rev. W. Townley, was held for 
a week in the Presbyterian church building, and the 
subject of Normal schools as they then existed in the 
East was presented; and besides the other branches 
of study to which attention was given, instruction was 
imparted in vocal music and how to teach it in schools. 
Of course the morning exercises were opened by 
prayer. 

In other counties, indeed in all the counties now, 
as one of the requirements of the Indiana school laws, 
during one week of each year, these institutes are 
held. 

2. Farmers' Institutes. 

About 1890, probably in 1889, the first farmers' 
institute was held in Indiana. They have been com- 
menced in county after county until now they have 
spread over the State. 

In North-Western Indiana the first was held about 
1894, and February "15, 16, and 17." 1900, was held 
at Valparaiso what was called on the programme "the 
closing Farmers' Institute of the State of Indiana for 
the Season of 1899-1900." On the programme for 
the morning of each day is given the name of some 
minister of the town for an "Invocation." Each day 
is thus opened with prayer. It seems to be quite a 
prevailing custom for farmers" institutes and for 



MODERK or railroad life. 141 

teachers' institutes, as for old settlers' associations, 
and for many other organizations, to recognize in 
their public exercises the Creator and Preserver of 
all, whom we call God. Sometimes an assembly, with- 
out designing to be atheistic, forgets this quite well- 
established custom. 

In regard to the large good accomplished by this 
institute work for the farming communities those 
who have attended these schools of instruction, much 
of that instruction conveyed in the details of personal 
experience, could readily testify. The growing in- 
terest manifested in these gatherings, and the class of 
men attending as lecturers, such as Professor Latta, 
of Purdue, Mr. Billingsley, of Indianapolis, in the tile 
department, and Mr. C. Husselman, general lecturer, 
show that applications of science to dairying, agricul- 
ture, and stock raising, are becoming well appreciated. 

3. Sunday-School Institutes. 

A Sunday-school convention is quite different from 
a Sunday-school institute, although some Sunday- 
school workers do not seem to recognize the differ- 
ence. The institutes proper, like those for teachers 
and for farmers, are gatherings designed especially for 
imparting and receiving instruction, instruction, of 
course, in regard to Sunday-school work. Between 
the years 1865 and 1890 institutes were held in many 
parts of Lake County, besides the annual and some- 
times quarterly conventions. These institutes were 
conducted to a large extent by the county Sunday- 
school secretary who was aided by teachers and others 
in the county; but a few were denominational and 
were conducted by some workers from other coun- 
ties. In Porter and La Porte counties, the Sunday- 



142 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

school centers being mainly Valparaiso and Hebron, 
and Michigan City and La Porte, institutes and also 
conventions have been held; but not so frequently 
and regularly as in Lake County. In Starke County 
much good Sunday-school work has been thus 
done, the popular and efficient public school superin- 
tendent for several years, W. B. Sinclair, being also 
an active Sunday-school worker. And in the counties 
of Pulaski and White, of Newton and Jasper, a good 
amount of Sunday-school work, and surely of good, 
has been accomplished. Sunday-schools were com- 
menced in pioneer times, but these conventions and 
institutes belong to our modern file. 

4. Temperance Institutes. 

Of the four classes of institutes held in our coun- 
ties, this one may well be called moral, the object of 
these institutes being to promote the cause of tem- 
perance and the cause of purity. They help to en- 
courage the great need of watchfulness in providing 
for the young a pure literature and pure displays in 
art. It is recognized that impurity and intemperance 
go together. As a good authority has said, "As a 
common curse they are one and inseparable." So 
while the Sunday-school institutes are held in the 
cause of religion, the teachers, in the cause of educa- 
tion, and the farmers, for the material good and pros- 
perity of the country on the welfare of which cities 
and towns depend, the temperance institutes and con- 
ventions are held in the interests of private and public 
virtue. In every clime the motto of the Woman's 
Christian Temperance Union is, for God and Home 
and Native Land. These unions are not so numerous 
as might be desirable, but each' one is a power for 



MODERN OR RAILROAD LIFE. 143 

good. They are now, in Lake County, at Crown 
Point, Hammond, Hobart, and Lowell ; in Porter, at 
Valparaiso, Hebron, perhaps Chesterton ; in La Porte 
County, at La Porte, Michigan City, Westville; in 
Starke, not any; in Pulaski, at Star City; in White, 
at Monon, Chalmers, probably Reynolds ; in Jasper, 
not any; in Newton, at Kentland, Morocco, Good- 
land. 

The members of these unions, who conduct the 
institutes and conventions, are quite largely, perhaps 
entirely, the more active, devoted, and earnest mem- 
bers of the churches ; and so, in some towns, they take 
higher ground than do the churches themselves, as 
organized bodies, on Sabbath observance, and on the 
great moral questions of the day. They have no in- 
terests of politics or of policy to keep them silent. 
They are a kind of advance guard of the great Chris- 
tian army in the conflict against immoral practices 
and habits and tendencies. 

Institutes this year have been held in La Porte 
County at Michigan City, a silver medal contest hav- 
ing been held, the first ever held at Michigan City. 
There were eight contestants and n Mjss Maud Staiger 
won the medal." In March one was held at Good- 
land in Newton County. "Six girls contested for a 
silver medal, which was awarded to Bessie Perkins." 
In White County, at Reynolds, an institute was held 
March 8, 1900. 

In other counties where previously held, they have 
accomplished good. 

The three northern counties began temperance 
work quite early, as they began improving in other 
lines, even in their early pioneer days, and when the 
"Crusade" movement started in Ohio, in Valparaiso 



144 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

were found some noble and brave women who took 
up the same line of work. It was then February, 
1874, when in Valparaiso there were eight saloons. 
The following proclamation issued by the city mayor, 
February 23, 1874, will show the course, in part, pur- 
sued by the women : 

"Whereas, for several days last past, large num- 
bers of persons have been engaged in assembling on 
and about the premises of citizens pursuing a lawful 
business, and remaining on said premises against the 
will of the owners thereof, and for the avowed pur- 
pose of interfering with their business ; * * * now, 
therefore, all such persons so assembling and re- 
maining, are hereby notified that such conduct is un- 
lawful * * * and they are admonished as good 
citizens to desist from the same," and they were 
warned that it was a duty of the authorities to "dis- 
perse such assemblages." Singing and prayer in the 
saloons was not to be tolerated in Valparaiso. 

The women in a few hours had their reply pub- 
lished and distributed over the city. 

It commenced with a quotation from the Scrip- 
tures, "Why do the heathen rage and the people 
imagine a vain thing?" with all of Psalm 2:1-4, adding 
a quotation from Acts 4:18, 19, and 5:29; and then 
it declared that the women had no purpose to violate 
the laws of the State but that they believed they had 
the right to do what they were then trying to do, 
and that it was their solemn purpose to go forward in 
the work they had undertaken ; and they close by 
saying, "if the hand of violence be laid upon us, we 
make our humble and confident appeal to the God 
whom we serve, and to the laws of the State whose 
faithful citizens we are." This reply was signed by 



MODERN OR RAILROAD LIFE. 145 

Mrs. A. V. Bartholomew, Mrs. L. C. Buckles, Mrs. 
E. Skinner, Mrs. A. Gurney, Mrs. E. Ball, executive 
committee, in behalf of the ladies engaged in the tem- 
perance movement." 

It was a grand uprising of the temperance women 
of Valparaiso, and meekly and nobly did they pass 
unharmed through the excitement of the time. 

Out of the Crusade movement of 1873 and 1874 
grew the unions, and for twenty-six years these have 
been living, growing, spreading over the world, and 
doing for suffering humanity a large work.* The 
World's W. C. T. U. was founded in 1883. 

The grand convention in Lake County was held in 
the Commissioner's room of the Court House, April 
2j y 1880, as the published records say, "the first con- 
vention in the county held under the auspices of 
women." Men and women were present as represen- 
tatives from West Creek, Cedar Creek, Eagle Creek 
townships, also from W r infield, Center, and Ross, and 
letters from Hanover and Hobart expressing hearty 
sympathy in the work. The records say, "Mrs. M. 
C. C. Ball, president of the W. C. T. U., presided. 
Miss Annie McWilliams was secretary. The morning 
session was opened by the reading of part of the 
Sermon on the Mount and prayer by Rev. T. H. Ball. 
'Only an Armor Bearer' was then sung." The record 
is added : "These are supposed to have been the 
first religious exercises publicly held in the new Court 
House." 

The first address was given by Mrs. Susan G. 
Wood, twenty years younger then than she is now, in 



*Fredonia, N. Y., Dec. 19, 1873, Washington Court House, 
Ohio, presents second claim, and Hillsboro, though called 
the "cradle," is said to he the third. 



146 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

the course of which she said, "Steadily and slowly we 
have been gaining ground. Twenty, fifteen, nay five 
years ago we could not have rallied such a force as 
presents itself before us today." Among those tak- 
ing part in the exercises are the names of J. Q. Ben- 
jamin, O. G. Taylor, Dr. J. A. Wood, F. Dickerson, 
H. Ward (then a county commissioner), J. Harrison, 
C. Baugh ; and Mrs. J. Skinner, Mrs. Farfield, and 
Mrs. Young, visiting sisters from Valparaiso. Before 
the convention closed devotional exercises were con- 
ducted by Rev. O. C. Haskell and Rev. E. H. Brooks. 
Since that day, along the twenty years that have 
passed, conventions and temperance institutes have 
been held in the different counties, and some good 
has surely been done, although the two amendments 
which were that year proposed to be added to our 
State Constitution, the one in favor of prohibition and 
the other in favor of woman suffrage, never were 
permitted by the General Assembly of Indiana to 
come for adoption or rejection before the voters of the 
State. And the number of saloons, since the Porter 
County Crusade, has largely increased. But the thou- 
sand saloons of North-Western Indiana, kept as some 
of them are by well-meaning men, and by fine-appear- 
ing young men, must some day yield to the moral 
power along the line oi tthe temperance unions. 
"Lawful" as the strong drink traffic is, as the mayor 
of Valparaiso well and truly said, made lawful by our 
county commissioners, our State Legislature, and our 
Congress, all the legislation in the world can never 
make it noble, can never make it good ; and when 
that promised time comes, when nations shall learn 
war no more, when the knowledge of the glory of 
the Lord covers the earth as do 'the waters the sea, 



MODERN OR RAILROAD LIFE. 147 

when there shall be none to hurt or destroy the peace 
and welfare of others, the time for the hastening on 
of which millions of Christian women are working 
and praying and longing, there will be then no more 
saloons. 

Good and praiseworthy as are the other three 
varieties of institutes, no good citizen should fail to 
encourage those that seek to promote in all home life 
temperance and purity, purity in literature, purity in 
art, that seek to build up in boys and girls alike true 
and equal virtue. One large page of progress in our 
modern or railroad life, notwithstanding the demoral- 
izing influences supposed to go with the railroad, 
that great attendant and promoter of civilization, is 
that on which we read the history of woman's work 
in the last two decades of the Nineteenth Centurv. 



CHAPTER XL 



POLITICAL HISTORY. 

It is not designed in this chapter to give the vote of 
each county, year by year, according to the division of 
citizens into political parties, but it is considered suffi- 
cient, for the objects of this historic record, to give the 
political aspects in each county in 1840, 1852, 1856, 
and i860, and then the prevailing political sentiment 
of the counties since the changes brought about by 
the Civil War and the era of Reconstruction. 

As all students of American history know, the year 
of 1840 was a time of great political excitement over 
the entire country, and it was the first presidential 
campaign in which these new counties in North- 
western Indiana had taken much of any part. 

For twenty-four years, from 1801 to 1825, Jeffer- 
son, Madison, and Monroe, had held in succession the 
office of President, all being what by some were 
called Democratic-Republicans; then, for four years 
John Quincy Adams, called a National Republican, 
was President ; and for twelve years more Jackson and 
Van Buren, called simply Democrats, held that high 
office ; and now many of the people were desirous of 
a change in the administration of national affairs. 
William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, was nominated for 
President and John Tyler, of Virginia, for Vice Pres- 
ident by a party or a union of different forces bearing 
the old historic name of Whig. It was the noted 



POLITICAL HISTORY. ■ 149 

Log Cabin and Hard Cider campaign. In La Porte 
County the contest was a very exciting one, on the 
Whig side such men as General Joseph Orr and Hon. 
John B. Niles, with many other prominent citizens 
being found ; and on the Democratic side such men as 
Gilbert Hathaway, C. W. Cathcart, and many more 
whose names will long remain in Northern In- 
diana history. It was not only an exciting and ardu- 
ous, but with some even a bitter struggle for success. 
Wilber F. Storey, afterward connected with the "Chi- 
cago Times," was then an editor of the "La Porte 
Herald," and his utterances in regard to the anti- 
slavery men who were beginning to vote with the 
Whigs, just before the political campaign opened, 
indicated full well the spirit of the man whose utter- 
ances in the "Chicago Times" in the opening years 
of the Civil War needed to be suppressed by the 
strong arm of power at Washington. And the pub- 
lisher, also an editor of that same "Herald," in his 
issue of July n, 1840, says the Whigs, whom he styles 
Federalists, residing in La Porte, "are the most aban- 
doned, reckless, hypocritical, murderous, and lost to 
every noble, honorable, virtuous feeling, of any other 
community with which I am acquainted ; and within 
the last few years I have traveled through nine states 
of the Union," words which General Packard, with 
good reason, says, "embittered the already aroused 
feeling of the Whig party" ; and words which he who 
in the heat of his vexation wrote them did not suppose, 
probably, would live a month. Surely one lesson 
of history is, that men should not write nor even 
speak that which they would be ashamed to have go 
down to posterity. 

Two resolutions adopted in this hot campaign will 



t50 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

be quite sufficient to show the spirit of that time in 
La Porte and also in Porter County. The first is 
Democratic : " 

"Resolved, That Federal principles are like Har- 
rison victories, few and far between — and made to suit 
party customs; and that Harrison's battles, so glor- 
iously won, according to the tactics of the Federal 
party, are like his principles, wholly unknown and un- 
heard of." 

The other is a Whig resolution, adopted by the 
senatorial convention at Valparaiso, March 28, 1840, 
"presided over by Solon Robinson," then of Lake 
County, "with James Blair, of Porter, and Alexander 
Blackburn, of La Porte, vice presidents, H. S. Orton 
and Samuel S. Anthony, secretaries." 

"Resolved, That we have our political log cabin 
already raised, that next August we will roof it in, 
that next November we will chink Locofocos into the 
cracks, and that next March we will move into it." 
And in March, 1841, General Harrison did go into the 
White House at Washington. 

Those who, as young men, enter into political life 
since the great changes produced by the Civil War, 
may see corruption and hear abuse heaped upon polit- 
ical opponents, but the bitterness manifested by many 
toward those who were opposed to slavery, while that 
"irrepressible conflict" was leading on to the great 
battles and the red fields of blood, they cannot readily 
realize. That editor of the "La Porte Herald" al- 
ready named, Wilber F. Storey, who became editor- 
in-chief and proprietor of the "Chicago Times," pub- 
lished in March, 1840, a long article on what he 
called "Abolitionism." In that article he styled it 
a "nefarious subject," mentioned contemptuously 



POLITICAL HISTORY. 151 

some "friends of the poor negro" who held a meet- 
ing in the La Porte court house, expressed the hope 
that the Democratic party would drive the anti- 
slavery men out of their party, and called those who 
spoke against slavery "abolition loafers.*' 

It is evident that even in the campaign of 1840 
elements were at work that would be felt more fully 
in i860. 

La Porte County, Porter County, the State of In- 
diana and the whole country went that year in favor of 
the Whig party. 

Two brilliant speakers, "captivating" one was 
called, and the other "a popular speaker of great elo- 
quence," were candidates for Congress, E. A. Hanne- 
gan and Henry S. Lane. The latter was elected. 

In Lake County the Democrats were quite largely 
in the majority and gave their vote forE. A. Hanne- 
gan. Solon Robinson, however, the first settler at 
Crown Point, with some other Whigs, had attended 
that great gathering in May, 1840, at the Tippecanoe 
battle ground, held in honor of General Harrison, of 
whom the Whigs of La Porte said : "The battle fields 
of Tippecanoe, of Fort Meigs, and of the Thames, 
present to the world imperishable monuments of his 
fame as a soldier, and upon that evidence he may 
safely rest." 

In 1840 Starke County and Newton had not been 
organized ; and Jasper, with its large territory, having 
then only twelve hundred and sixty-seven inhabitants, 
and one hundred and thirty-eight polls, took but little 
part in political affairs. 

Says Judge Thompson, of Rensselaer : "In 1840 
the entire taxable valuation of. property in what is 
now Newton, Benton, and Jasper, was $20,340." He 



152 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

says again: 'Trior to 1840 there were settlements at 
Blue Grass, Wall Street, Carpenter's Creek, Gillam, 
Crockett's Graveyard, and a few scattering houses 
throughout the county." 

White County, next to La Porte County in age, 
had not then become populous ; nor yet had Pulaski, 
then but recently organized, its first term of court 
held in 1840; so these counties took no very active 
part in the political campaign of 1840. Lake County 
had then fourteen hundred and sixty-eight inhab- 
itants. 

In 1848 there was another exciting campaign. 
General Taylor was the Whig candidate for Presi- 
dent and General Lewis Cass the Democratic can- 
didate. One sentence may well be quoted here as 
belonging to this canvass which was "constant, thor- 
ough, and able." ^Passions were deeply stirred, for 
more and more were questions, arising out of the 
institution of slavery, coming to the surface, and al- 
though both the old parties endeavored to ignore such 
questions, like the ghost of murdered Ban-quo, they 
would not 'down.' " 

The "Higher Law" was mentioned in discussions 
in these exciting days. Schuyler Colfax, afterward 
Vice President of the United States, was for the first 
time a candidate for Congress, nominated by a Whig 
convention in May, 1851. His Democratic competi- 
tor was Graham N. Fitch. The position ol the two 
parties in this part of Indiana is shown in two of their 
resolutions adopted at their district conventions. The 
first is Democratic : 

"Resolved, That we abide by the letter and spirit 
of the Constitution, and that we will stand by each and 
all of its compromises, and therefore recognize the 



POLITICAL HISTORY. 153 

binding force of every clause (the delivery of fugitives 
from labor included), 'and we regard any action from 
any quarter, North or South, that tends to weaken or 
estrange our high allegiance to its solemn provisions, 
as equally faithless and treasonable." 

And the corresponding Whig resolution was this : 

"Resolved, That our position remains unchanged ; 
no interference with the domestic policy or peculiar 
institutions of sister States ; no extension of slave ter- 
ritory; no diffusion of an institution, which it is be- 
lieved tends to degrade labor and blight industry, 
over more of national soil than it now covers; no 
countenancing of disunion sentiments whether at the 
North or South ; but devotion, unfaltering and uncon- 
ditional devotion to our glorious Union, in any event, 
under all circumstances, despite all contingencies. " 

By a convention adopting this as setting forth their 
views Schuyler Colfax received his first nomination 
for Congress. 

There was already a small but growing Free Soil 
party, not satisfied, even, with the position taken by 
the Whigs. Their candidate in 1848 was Martin Van 
Buren, and in 1852, the year which has been named as 
one of special interest, their candidate was John P. 
Hale. In this year, Franklin Pierce being the Demo- 
cratic candidate and the Whigs endeavoring to elect 
one more general, the noted Winfield Scott, a Demo- 
cratic wave seemed to sweep over the country. The 
Whigs had elected General Harrison, they had elected 
General Taylor, both of whom died in office ; they had 
failed to elect that grand statesman and favorite son 
of Kentucky, Henry Clay, although La Porte County 
gave him a good majority; and now, in 1852, they 
failed to elect General Scott. It was their last great 



154 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

effort. The party was broken up. A new party was 
growing, which became before long the great Repub- 
lican party of the northern portion of the whole coun- 
try. A square issue in regard to the growth of 
slavery was soon to be made. About 1852 a party also 
was formed, the American party which included the 
"Know-Nothings," which prevailed for a time in both 
the North and the South, including largely those who 
had been Whigs ; the Kansas and Nebraska bill, re- 
pealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820, was intro- 
duced by Stephen A. Douglas and passed by Congress 
in May, 1854; and all those in favor of free territorial 
soil became still more aroused to the fact of the con- 
flict before them, and were gathering their forces to 
meet it. The Republican party was organized. In 
1856 the combined forces that went into this party 
held their first national convention and nominated 
for President John C. Fremont. But the Democrats 
elected this year one more President, James Buch- 
anan, and it was evident before long that not ballots 
but bullets would be needful to settle the conflict, 
when in i860, on a full tidal wave of success Abraham 
Lincoln was elected to be the next President of the 
United States. 

The position of the counties in these different 
years is now to be examined. 

La Porte County in 1852 gave to the Democratic 
electors a majority of one hundred and eleven, at the 
same time the Free Soil party in the county giving 
to John P. Hale one hundred and thirty-six votes, 
so that had these votes been given for General Scott 
La Porte would still have held a Whig majority. 
Schuyler Colfax and Henry S. Lane were this year 
among the defeated Whig electors-. 



POLITICAL HISTORY. 155 

In 1856 La Porte County went strongly Repub- 
lican and gave Colfax one hundred and thirty ma- 
jority for representative in Congress. The year, i860, 
came, when the whole nation, both North and South, 
saw that there was no light conflict before them ; yet 
not even then foreseeing how desperate and how 
bloody it would be. An organization known as 
Wide Awakes in La Porte, added brilliancy to the 
night scenes, as with torch lamps they moved in long 
processions on the streets of that beautiful city. The 
election day came. Colfax received a majority of one 
thousand and five for another term in Congress as 
Republican representative. La Porte County con- 
tinued Republican till 1872, when it became Demo- 
cratic, and since that time its vote has not been con- 
stant for one party. 

Porter County in 1852 was probably Democratic, 
as it had been in 1848, giving a few Free Soil votes, — 
the vote of two townships is not at hand — but in 1856 
it was strongly Republican, and in 1800 the county 
gave for Lincoln a large majority. It continued to be 
a Republican County until after 1880, and for several 
years past it has been generally Republican. Lake 
County, at first and for several years largely Demo- 
cratic, when the Republican party was formed, be- 
came strongly Republican, the Free Soil Democrats 
of whom there were many, going with the Whigs to 
help form that large party that for twenty-four con- 
secutive years had a Republican President in the 
White House. (It may be noted as a somewhat sin- 
gular coincidence that as the so-called Democratic- 
Republican party had control of the government from 
1801 to 1825, so the Republican, the Free Soil party, 
had control for the same length of time, from 1861 
to 1885.) 



156 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

The other five counties, Starke, Pulaski, White, 
Jasper, and Newton, have been quite unfform in their 
political preferences, Starke and Pulaski Democratic ; 
Jasper and Newton Republican; and White in 1896 
giving a Democratic majority for Secretary of State, 
the two parties, however, being quite evenly bal- 
anced. 

In the last few years, in all these 'counties there 
have been some Prohibition votes. The Prohibition 
candidate for governor a few years ago, R. S. Dwig- 
gins, was a resident of Rensselaer. 

Number of voters in 1895 — , 

Counties. White. Colored. 

La Porte 9414 38 

Lake 8,192 21 

Porter 5,128 2 

White 4,780 3 

Jasper 3,444 6 

Pulaski 3,219 I 

Newton 2,600 19 

Starke 2,465 

DISTRICTS AND CONGRESSMEN. 

When, in 1843, an act was passed "for revising and 
consolidating the Statutes of the State of Indiana," 
it was enacted in the section in regard to the coun- 
ties, "The State of Indiana shall be, and the same is 
hereby divided into the following counties, to wit:" 
The names of eighty-eight counties then follow, but 
no Newton County is nametl, as it was then included 
in Jasper. After defining the boundaries of the eighty- 
eight counties, ten Congressional districts were 
formed. Our eight counties Newton as a part 
of Jasper, were then placed in the Ninth 



POLITICAL HISTORY. 157 

district, along with nine other counties, the 
General Assembly thus making this, in the 
number of counties, the largest district in the 
State. The other districts numbered from four to 
fourteen counties each. It is to be supposed that 
the northwestern part of Indiana, in 1843, was not 
very densely populated. In arranging the senatorial 
districts, "La Porte, Lake, and Porter," were entitled 
to one senator; "Warren, White, Pulaski, Jasper, 
Benton, and Starke," to one. So that, with the aid of 
two other counties, we then elected two State sena- 
tors. In arranging for representatives, La Porte was 
then allowed to have two ; Porter and Lake were to 
elect one; White, Pulaski, and Jasper, together with 
Benton, to elect one ; and Starke along with Marshall 
and Fulton could also elect one. Five representatives 
we could elect with the help of three other counties, 
rious changes. 

But population increased. Time brought its va- 
in 1872 an act of the General Assembly re-arrang- 
ing senators and representatives became a law, and 
then La Porte County alone was entitled to one sen- 
ator; Lake and Porter to one; Newton, Jasper, and 
White, with Benton, to one; Starke with St. Joseph 
to one ; and Pulaski, along with Marshall and Fulton, 
to one. La Porte, Porter, and Lake, were allowed 
one representative each; Jasper and White together, 
one; Newton with Benton, one; Pulaski and Starke 
with a part of Fulton, one. 

In 1876, when there were thirteen Congressional 
districts, our eight counties, with Carroll and St. 
Joseph, constituted the Tenth*. There were cast that 
year, for President, 35,187 votes in this Tenth district, 
distributed thus : For Hayes, 17,902; for Tilden, 16,- 
917; and for Cooper, 368. 



158 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

At the session of the Indiana Legislature in 1895 
a new arrangement for Congressional districts was 
made. The State was again divided into thirteen dis- 
tricts, the Tenth to comprise the counties of Lake, 
Porter, and La Porte; White, Newton, and Jasper, 
with Warren, Tippecanoe, and Benton. Pulaski and 
Starke were placed in the Thirteenth district. The 
number of counties, according to this last division, 
ranges from two to ten in a district, one district only, 
the Fourth, exceeding the Tenth in number. The 
average number of counties in a district is now seven, 
so the Tenth is not quite up to the average. 

In 1897 another act of the Legislature changed 
slightly the apportionments of senators and represen- 
tatives which had been re-arranged in 1895. This last 
act gave to La Porte and Starke one senator ; to Lake 
and Porter one ; to Newton, Jasper, and White, one ; 
and to Pulaski with Cass, one. This act gave, for 
representatives, to White and Pulaski, one ; to Porter, 
one; to Newton with Benton, one; to Lake with 
Jasper, two ; and to La Porte with Starke, two. 

FULL LIST OF CONGRESSMEN. 

This list contains the names of representatives in 
Congress for only one district. Some of the eight 
counties have been at times in other districts. 

Indiana had in 183 1 and 1832, the twenty-second 
session of Congress, only three districts; but at the 
time of the next session, for the years 1833 an d 1834, 
there were seven, and ours continued to be the Seventh 
district till 1843. 

First — Edward S. Hannegan, , Democrat. Two 
terms, 1833 to 1836. 



POLITICAL HISTORY. 159 

Second — Albert S. White, Democrat, 1837 and 
1838. 

Third — Tilghman A. Howard, Democrat, 1839 and 
1840. 

Fourth — Henry S. Lane, Whig, 1841 and 1842. 

Fifth — Samuel C. Sample, Whig, 1843 an d 1844. 
The district was now the Ninth. 

Sixth — Charles W. Cathcart, Democrat, 1845 to 
1848. Two terms. 

Seventh — Graham N. Fitch, Democrat, 1849 to 
1852. Two terms. 

Eighth — Norman Eddy, Democrat, 1853 an d 1854. 

Ninth — Schuyler Colfax, Anti-Nebraska and after- 
ward Republican. Seven terms, 1855 to 1868. 

Tenth — Jasper Packard, Republican. Three terms. 
The district now the Eleventh, 1869 to 1874. 

Eleventh — William S. Raymond, Democrat, 1875 
and 1876. District now the Tenth. 

Twelfth — William H. Calkins, Republican, 1877 
to 1880. Two terms. 

Thirteenth — Mark L. De Motte, Republican, 1881 
and 1882. 

Fourteenth — Thomas J. Wood, Democrat, 1883 
and 1884. 

Fifteenth William D. Owen, Republican, 1885 to 
1890. Three terms. 

Sixteenth — David H. Patton, Republican, 1891 
and 1892. 

Seventeenth — Thomas Hammond, Democrat, 
1893 and 1894. 

Eighteenth — Jethro A. Hatch, Republican, 1895 
and 1896. 

Nineteenth — Edgar D. Crumpacker, Republican, 
1897 to 1900. 



160 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



JUDICIAL CIRCUITS AND JUDGES. 

Thirtieth Circuit — Jasper and Newton counties 
with Benton form this circuit. Present judge elected 
in 1896, S. P. Thompson, of Rensselaer. Republican. 

Thirty-first Circuit — Lake and Porter counties. 
Judge, John H. Gillett, residing at Hammond. Re- 
publican. 

Thirty-second Circuit — La Porte County with St. 
Joseph. Judge, Lucius Hubbard, of La Porte. 

Thirty-ninth Circuit — White with Carroll County. 
Judge, Foreman F. Palmer, of Monticello. 

Forty-fourth Circuit — Pulaski and Starke coun- 
ties, both Democratic, electing as the present judge, 
George W. Beeman. 

In the records of La Porte County are the names 
of these four who have been members of the Congress 
of the United States : C. W. Cathcart, Jasper Pack- 
ard, William H. Calkins, and Mulford K. Farrand. 

Congressmen from Porter County are the follow- 
ing: Mark L. De Motte, Edgar D. Crumpacker. 

From Lake County: Thomas J. Wood and 
Thomas Hammond. 

La Porte County has furnished one United States 
Senator, Charles W. Cathcart, from 1852 to 1853, and 
one judge of the Supreme Court, Andrew L. Os- 
borne, from 1872 to 1874. 

Lake County has furnished a Secretary of State, 
Charles F. Griffin, from 1887 to 1891 ; a Crown Point 
boy and then a young lawyer ; a Sunday-school super- 
intendent and active in the temperance work of the 
town, then sent to Indianapolis, and now a resident 
lawyer at Hammond. 



ADDENDUM. 161 



ADDENDUM. 

Among those events that are deserving of notice 
some space should surely be given to the part 
taken by citizens in these counties to what 
is known as our Mexican War, which com- 
menced in April, 1846, and ended in Sep- 
tember, 1847. Of this conflict the author of 
that highly praised "Dictionary of United States His- 
tory," advertised as "the grandest book of the age/' 
takes the opportunity to say: "The war was plainly 
one of unjust aggression on a minor power, with 
the object of winning more territory for new slave 
States." The opinion of a recorder of history may be 
of value, or it may not be of value; but a writer of 
history is not required to express his private opinion 
in order to give correct facts. There are, probably, 
two sides to the questions concerning every war, — the 
present ones of 1900 being no exceptions — and there 
were many to uphold the action of our government 
in 1846, as there are to uphold its action in 1898, 
1899, and 1900. 

Whether any readers of these pages agree with 
Professor Jameson in his needless thrust at the action 
of our government or whether they believe, with 
many others, that the Mexican was a justifiable war, 
out of which grew grand and good results, they will 
surely accord to the men who went from these coun- 
ties due respect for patriotism and for valor. La 
Porte County, the most populous and most wealthy, 



1C2 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

took the lead in this as in some other movements, 
and soon a company was sent forth with W. W. Mc- 
Coy as captain. 

The ladies of La Porte presented to this company 
a beautiful silk banner, which was borne with honor 
over sparkling waters and bloody battlefields, and 
was in August, 1848, returned with credit to the hands 
of the ladies who had given it. 

In that company, Robert Fravel, First Lieuten- 
ant; C. W. Lewis, Second Lieutenant; Samuel 
Mecum, Ensign and Color Bearer, were ninety-two 
young men. Some of them did not return. The com- 
pany was organized in May, 1847. The peace was 
proclaimed July 4, 1848. 

Captain Joseph P. Smith, a business man of Crown 
Point, proposed to raise a company for this war. 
(W. A. Goodspeed in "Porter and Lake" says that he 
was the "only one man in the county who knew any- 
thing of military tactics." And at that same time 
there was living in Lake County one who had been 
colonel of a company of cavalry, and had been on 
many a muster field before 1832. But of course W. 
A. Goodspeed could not be expected to know. He 
came, a stranger among us, to write the history of 
Porter and of Lake counties. He should have re- 
frained from volunteering statements about matters 
which he could not know.) Captain Smith, it was un- 
derstood, had been captain of a military company in 
New York, and did have some knowledge of military 
drill. He raised a company in four or five counties, 
some twenty-five men of Lake County, one hundred 
and seven in all, and left Crown Point for Mexico. 
It would seem that, in point of time, Captain Smith's 
patriotic action was in advance of Captain McCoy's 



ADDENDUM. 163 



of La Porte, for the evidence is that he crossed the 
Tippecanoe with his entire company on the way to 
Madison, Indiana, before the last of April, 1847; Du ^ 
in regard to numbers La Porte County took the lead. 
This company was quite unfortunate; some actually 
deserted, and many never returned. Some made good 
soldiers in a later and a larger war. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE WAR RECORD. 

From the view given of the political aspects of 
these counties it is evident that the elements were 
here, as in all the non-slave-holding states, for ener- 
getic action when the first gun should be fired that 
was on both sides the call to arms. And where had 
been the larger number of Whigs and of Free Soil 
Democrats would naturally be the largest Republican 
majorities and the most complete uprising of the peo- 
ple. 

April 12, 1 86 1, that gun was fired that sent the 
blood flowing more rapidly through the hearts of mill- 
ions. La Porte was then as now the most populous of 
our eight county seats, and having so many wealthy 
and prominent citizens rapid action was taken. 

Says a La Porte writer: 

"No one who lived in La Porte at the time will 
ever forget the magnificent uprising of the people on 
the thirteenth of April, 1861." It was Saturday. A 
large concourse of citizens gathered in Huntsman 
Hall to hear the telegraphic dispatches read. Sunday 
evening another meeting was held in the hall and fur- 
ther dispatches were read, those confirming the worst 
fears of the citizens in regard to the actual surrender 
of Fort Sumter." Thus closed with news of war and 
defeat the first Sabbath of the new American Revolu- 
tion." 



THE WAR RECORD. 165 

On Monday the war spirit was rising rapidly. 
Huntsman Hall was crowded Monday evening. That 
night the first man volunteered his services for the 
coming war, "Dan J. Woodward," a prominent Dem- 
ocrat. Meetings continued to be held. Vigorous, 
patriotic resolutions were adopted, a relief fund for 
families that might be left destitute was raised, that 
soon amounted to over four thousand dollars, and 
soon two companies were ready for marching orders. 

On Tuesday when the crowd assembled at the 
mayor's office and marched to Huntsman Hall, "By 
request, General Orr bore the Star Spangled Ban- 
ner." At the hall Tuesday evening Mayor Whitehead 
presided and John Millikan was secretary. An inci- 
dent of Wednesday may fittingly be recorded here. 
A young man ready to enlist, recognizing that his 
highest duty was to serve God and the next his 
country, went to the pastor of one of the churches 
and in the presence of a few friends professed his faith 
in Christ, was baptized, and immediately joined the 
company of volunteers enlisting for the war. He 
would place himself first, outwardly, in the Christian 
army and then in the Union army, to battle for the 
right. On Monday, April 15, President Lincoln had 
issued a call for seventy-five thousand men, and on 
the same day General Lewis Wallace had issued an 
order, as Adjutant General, for the organization of the 
Indiana militia. 

Further details cannot here be given in regard to 
La Porte County, only the statement that a company 
was organized at Michigan City in time to gain a 
place in the Ninth Regiment. 

At Valparaiso, the next largest county seat, scenes 
somewhat similar to those in La Porte were wk- 



166 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

nessed, the first public meeting having been held at 
the court house on Monday evening, April 15. Men 
enlisted, a company was raised that also went into the 
Ninth Regiment under Colonel Milroy, and * was 
known as Company H. Among those active in pro- 
moting enlistments were J. N. Skinner, Dr. R. A. 
Cameron, who became captain of the first company, 
M. L. De Motte, J. C. B. Suman, G. A. Pierce, W. 
Bartholomew, T. G. Lytle, Rev. S. C. Logan, and 
Rev. Mr. Gurney. These were by no means all of the 
active and prominent citizens who gave good evi- 
dence of their patriotism. 

It was supposed that there were, or might be, 
among those who had been strong Democrats in the 
former years, some, who were not in favor of the war 
that was opening, and the following, among other 
resolutions, was adopted at a public meeting April 18 : 
"That if it is found that there are Secessionists in our 
midst, we will not encourage violence and bloodshed 
at home, but we will withdraw from them our social 
relations, and, if business men, we will not favor them 
with our patronage." A few such were found in 
these counties, as in other parts of Indiana, to whom 
was given, in those years of fearful conflict that fol- 
lowed, the not very complimentary name of Copper- 
heads. 

At Crown Point, the next county seat westward, 
then a small inland town, having no railroad con- 
nection with the outer world, depending on the little 
stage that came from Hobart or Ross for their news, 
but with a largely Republican and intensely loyal body 
of citizens, the Charleston gun, when its sound did 
reach them, aroused them also to speedy action. En- 
listments were made with sufficient speed to secure 



THE WAR RECORD. 167 

about seventy men a place in that Ninth Regiment, 
which from its war record became known as the 
"Bloody Ninth." Lake County in i860 had a popula- 
tion of 9,145, containing- about eighteen hundred 
families. And as near as can be known, some three 
hundred enlisting in Illinois, one thousand men from 
Lake County went into the Union army. 

South of the Kankakee River, at Rensselaer, men 
were found ready to respond to the call of the Presi- 
dent, and as Newton County, as such, was not organ- 
ized until April, i860, those who went as soldiers from 
Newton would naturally enlist in companies formed in 
Jasper. No account has as yet been found of war 
meetings held at Rensselaer or at Monticello or at 
Winamac, but there were loyal-hearted men and 
women there, and although in i860 the entire popula- 
tion of Jasper and Newton, of White, Pulaski, and 
Starke, did not equal the poulation of La Porte 
County alone, it is very certain, without access to the 
records, that the inhabitants did their part in main- 
taining the union of the States and upholding the 
Constitution and putting down secession. 

Says Judge Thompson, to whom as good author- 
ity it is pleasant to refer : "In the Mexican War our 
volunteers were few and little ardor or enthusiasm 
prevailed." 

"In 1861, however, under the leadership of Robert 
H. Milroy, Jasper stepped to the front and furnished 
three hundred and forty-five blue coat soldiers. The 
ladies were loyal, too, and donations to hospitals were 
in order whenever called for. From our volunteers 
were made generals, colonels, and numerous line of- 
ficers. In the 9th, 12th, 17th, 48th, and 87th In- 
fantry, and 1 2th Cavalry, and 4th Artillery our brave 
boys fought for national unity to a finish." 



168 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Some one has ascertained that the number of men 
enlisting from Pulaski County was 1,166. The num- 
ber just given of men enlisting in Jasper is 345. No 
exact number has been found for any other county, 
but from La Porte County the number of men is 
placed at about 2,600; from Porter County, about 
1,200; from Lake County, more than 1,000. Estimat- 
ing the men from White, Starke, and Newton at 700, 
and the total amount will be seven thousand men that 
went as soldiers from North-Western Indiana into 
the Union army. Rev. Robert Beer, in giving the 
record of Porter County, says : "The names of Por- 
ter County soldiers are found upon the rolls of twenty- 
nine regiments of infantry, four regiments of cavalry, 
and two batteries of artillery, which went from this 
State." 

How many from these counties enlisted in Illinois 
regiments is uncertain. Mr. Beer gives as the result 
of his study of enrollment reports, honorably dis- 
charged 156, died of sickness 106, mustered out 539, 
thus accounting for 801 from Porter County with 
no mention of those who were killed in battle.* 

Some promotions were the following: Robert H. 
Milroy, of Rensselaer, at first Colonel of Ninth Regi- 
ment, promoted t Brigadier General September 3, 
1861 ; promoted Major General November 29, 1862. 
Gideon C. Moody, also of Rensselaer, promoted 
Colonel; Joshua Healey, of Rensselaer, promoted 
Major of the 128th Regiment; William Krimbill, of 
Crown Point, promoted Major; W. H. Blake, of 



*I am sorry that I have not been able to obtain, in re- 
gard to some of the counties, more full reports, but the 
work of searching through all the volumes of the Adjutant 
General's report seemed to be too great. T. H. B. 



THE WAR RECORD. 169 

Michigan City, promoted Colonel, also promoted 
Lieutenant Colonel; Ivin N. Walker, of Michigan 
City, promoted Lieutenant Colonel, also of La Porte 
County, S. C. Gregory, 29th Regiment, promoted 
Colonel; John C. Walker, 25th Regiment, Colonel; 
Gilbert Hathaway, 73d Regiment, Colonel, killed at 
Blount's Farm, Alabama, May 2, 1863 ; R. P. Dehart, 
promoted Lieutenant Colonel; Nevill Gleason, 87th 
Regiment, Brigadier General by brevet, and Jasper 
Packard, 128th Regiment, Brigadier General by 
brevet. Soldiers of Porter County promoted : Robert 
A. Cameron, Colonel, afterward Brigadier General, 
then Major General by brevet; J. C. B. Suman, Brig- 
adier General by brevet. 

Of Lake County, John Wheeler, of 20th Regiment, 
promoted Colonel. He was killed July 2, 1863, on the 
battlefield of Gettysburg. Had he lived through that 
terrific battle, he too might have been Brigadier Gen- 
eral by brevet. 

Rev. J. M. Whitehead, of La Porte County, was 
Chaplain of the 15th Regiment, and of Porter County, 
Rev. J. C. Brown w 7 as Chaplain of the 48th Regiment, 
and Rev. James C. Claypool, of the 12th Cavalry. Of 
this regiment, William H. Calkins, of Porter, was 
Major, and Charles Ball, of Lake, performed the du- 
ties of Sergeant Major, although properly Lieutenant 
of Company G. A sketch of his life can be found in 
'The Lake of the Red Cedars." 

To go w r ith the various regiments in which our 
seven thousand volunteer soldiers were enlisted, over 
their various battle fields, to see them fall before shot 
and shell, or die in hospitals, or languish, as many did 
in Southern war prisons, and to look upon those of 
them who were permitted to live through the dreadful 



170 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

carnage and see the valor which they displayed on so 
many noted battlefields, belongs to the general history 
of the State and of the country. And so far as our 
State is concerned, that history, to some extent, has 
been already written. 

It was not long after the first blood was shed in 
battle before it was ascertained that there was work 
for the hands of women as well as suffering and 
anguish to reach many a woman's heart. And very 
soon women commenced work. Societies were organ- 
ized and busy fingers prepared the various articles 
that became needful in camps and hospitals. 

The record for La Porte County is brief, but full 
of meaning. Thus it reads : "The women were 
aroused, and all over the county relief societies were 
organized, and from that time forward during all the 
months and years of the war, their solemn vigils were 
kept, and they refused to know relaxation or weari- 
ness in their noble work of supplying comforts to dis- 
eased and wounded, and suffering men." 

No record has been found of the work done by the 
women of Porter County, but they surely would not 
be far behind their sisters in other counties. 

In Lake County the women became active helpers. 
A Soldiers' Aid Society was organized in Crown Point 
in 1861, and still later another was formed with Mrs. 
J. II. Luther as President, Mrs. B. B. Cheshire and 
Mrs. J. E. Young Vice Presidents, Mrs. A. M. Mar- 
tin, Secretary, Mrs. T. H. Ball, Treasurer. At Plum 
Grove also an Aid Society was organized, Mrs. M. J. 
Pearce, President, Miss A. J. Albert, Secretary, and 
Miss M. J. Wheeler, Treasurer. Other societies were 
organized in different parts of the county, but of 
these no special record is at hand- These societies 



THE WAR RECORD. 171 

raised considerable sums of money and sent many arti- 
cles of convenience and comfort to the soldiers. 

And two of the noble-hearted women of Crown 
Point, Miss Elizabeth Hodson and Mrs. Sarah Robin- 
son, gave their services in these dark years of suffer- 
ing, to the care of the sick and wounded and dying. 
Connected with the Christian Commission work they 
found large employment in the hospitals at Memphis. 
They both returned to Crown Point, and Miss Hodson 
afterward was governess at the Soldiers' Orphan 
Home at Knightstown, Indiana. They both were 
very noble Christian women, and at home were active 
in Sunday-school and church work. One was a Bap- 
tist, the other a Presbyterian. 

The records of the work performed by the noble 
and patriotic women of Rennselaer, Monticello, and 
Winamac are not at hand. 

REMINISCENCES. NOTES. 

This chapter has awakened some personal reminis- 
cences which are placed here in notes : 

Note I. In the years, probably, 1845 an d 1846, 
Colonel Gilbert Hathaway, then a lawyer in La Porte, 
used to have business in my father's court, the Pro- 
bate Court of Lake County, and was sometimes a 
guest at my father's home. One morning I took him 
down to the south part of the west side of the Red 
Cedar Lake, where was then a large marsh, to in- 
itiate him into the art of shooting sand-hill cranes 
with my little, unerring Springfield rifle. In those 
days I was an expert marksman and good hunter. 
Game was not abundant that morning, but we had 
the exercise and the hunt. 

In 185 1 I was a young teacher, in the spring and 



172 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

summer, at a fashionable watering place known as 
Franklin Springs, south of Tuscumbia, near Russell- 
ville, in North Alabama. Among these hills and 
mountains I had the training of some Alabama boys, 
three of whom were brothers, connected with the fam- 
ily of General Coffee, noted in the Creek War of 1813 
and 1814. April 28, 1863, twelve years later, the 73rd 
Indiana Regiment, the lawyer, Gilbert Hathaway, 
Colonel, left Tuscumbia as a part of Colonel Straight's 
Provisional Brigade, "on its hazardous expedition," 
then "only 1,500 strong," and April 30th, repulsed an 
attack of 4,000 cavalry under Forrest and Roddy, but 
a few days later, after that fierce encounter "in the 
passes of Sand Mountain," pursued by the forces of 
General Forrest, the brigade having reached what 
was known as Blount's Farm, on the second day of 
May, Colonel Hathaway was shot from his horse, an 
animal upon which that day he ought not to 1 have been 
seen. 

How fifteen hundred men could have been sent 
through that region with any hope of success seems 
strange to one who had spent a summer there in 185 1, 
and I imagine that some of those mountain children 
whom it was then my lot to teach, were active among 
those who regarded the Northern soldiers as men who 
must be driven from their valley and mountain homes. 
Perhaps some of those very boys were present, but 
boys no longer, when Colonel Hatriaway fell. He was 
warned about appearing on that captured horse, but 
he liked a fine horse too well. A man stepped out 
from the Confederate ranks, took a sure aim at the 
officer on the Southern horse, and fired. He himself 
never stepped back. 

The Southern account of these days of fighting and 



THE WAR RECORD. 173 

marching is interesting. Says Brewer : 'The mount- 
ain wall on her northern boundary gave a feeling of 
security to the people of Blount during the progress 
of the late war. But the closing day of April, 1863, 
was signalized by 'the shock of resounding arms' in 
the direction of Moulton. At dusk on that day, For- 
rest overtook Straight in the passes of Sand Mount- 
ain, and the fight lasted for three hours. The enemy 
were at length driven back and came hurriedly down 
the valley into Blount. 'The scene of this prolonged 
and desperate conflict on the barren mountain heights 
of North Alabama is remembered by participants who 
have mingled in the great battles of the war, as one of 
peculiar, weird grandeur, impossible to paint with 
words/'* 

The scene is now in Etowa County. "The scenery 
of this county is as wild as that 'on the bold cliffs of 
Benevue.' * * * The fall of Black Creek is a 
romantic spot. The water is precipitated abruptly over 
a precipice ninety feet in height. * * * One clear 
May morning, 1863, about noon, the peaceful inhabit- 
ants of the vicinity were startled by the galloping of 
horses, the rattling of sabers, and the hurried glances 
and excited shouts of armed men. * * * Amazed 
but curious, the good people flocked to the roadside 
where passed the dusty and confused columns of the 
dreadful Yankees. They stopped only long enough 
to seize the horses of the citizens, and the hindmost 
passed hurriedly over the bridge. This they fired, and 
held the wooded heighths beyond to guard the pas? 
while the timbers blazed. A second cavalcade fol- 
lowed the first, but the deep and rapid stream, with 



♦Brewer's Alabama, pages 139 and 140. 



174 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

sheer and high banks, stopped them. Their leader, 
stalwart and begrimmed with dust, asked a group of 
females if there was not a ford near that could be 
crossed." Let us stop a moment in this account to 
see who these were, this little group of women. 
Emma Sansom had that morning just returned 
from Gadsden to her home. The horse she rode 
had hardly been stripped of the saddle when the ad- 
vance of Straight's command came up and seized 
him. Her mother, however, assisted by Miss Emma, 
was holding on to the beast, amid a torrent of threats, 
when a federal officer ordered his men to release him. 
"The war-worn pageant passed her home, Forrest 
reached the spot," and now we return to the time 
when we left him inquiring for a ford. He was told 
that there was a ford. "He then asked if there was a 
man about who could guide him to it. 'There is not, 
but I can/ said the young maiden. So not waiting for 
her own horse to be re^saddled, she mounted behind 
him and guided them to the ford, about a mile above 
the bridge. This also they found guarded." "A vol- 
ley of musketry whistled over them." They dis- 
mounted and Forrest descended a ravine "to recon- 
noiter the ford, crawling on his hands and knees." He 
left the girl hidden at the roots of a fallen tree, but 
she followed into the ravine. Soon they returned. "A 
storm of bullets greeted their re-appearance on the 
level. 'They have only wounded my dress' she said, 
as she met his anxious glance. Then, facing the en- 
emy, she waved her sun bonnet defiantly round her 
head. Cheer after cheer came from the foe, who 
ceased firing at once."* 



♦Brewer's Alabama. 



THE WAR RECORD. 175 



Emma Sansom returned to her home to be num- 
bered in Alabama among their heroines. Forrest with 
his troop crossed the ford. On May 2nd, Colonel 
Hathaway fell, Straight's command, his "provisional 
brigade" surrendered. 

After so many years the Northern and the South- 
ern accounts blend well together. He who writes 
these lines can appreciate the feelings of the actors 
on both sides then. 

Note 2. From a list of members of 9th Regiment, 
Company B : 

On page 319 of General Packard's valuable his- 
tory of La Porte County the first line on the page 
reads : 

''Tozier, Reuben, September 5, '61 ; Transferred 
V. R. C, Feb. 19, '63." (The above letters seem to de- 
note Vol. Reserve Corps.) 

As early as 1844 I became acquainted with this 
Reuben Tozier. He was living on a farm one-half 
mile from my father's home. He went to the Mexican 
War in Captain Joseph P. Smith's company. When 
he returned I was away. He went into the Union 
Army, as the line above indicates. A few years ago I 
was in the La Porte Poor House, or County Asylum. 
I found him there. I knew him well. He must have 
made a good soldier. He deserved a better home in 
his old age. In his youth he had enjoyed cultivation 
somewhere. I was a member with him, before the 
Mexican War, of a Cedar Lake Literary Society. He 
was an interesting member. He could give one recita- 
tion, I might say, to perfection. He had been trained 
somewhere. Why he should have had only a pauper's 
fare I know not. But if he has no other monument, 
I set this page apart as the memorial of an old friend 
of my youth, 



176 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



Sacrefc to tbe /iDemoty 

REUBEN TOZIER. 



Note 3. Before this chapter was all written the 
tidings came of the death of General Jasper Packard. 
A teacher at one time in La Porte, an editor afterward 
in La Porte, a soldier and^a statesman, he was the 
true historian of La Porte County. His work, of which 
mention has been made, from which extracts have 
been taken, was published four years after the publica- 
tion of the first history of Lake County; and it is the 
foundation, the source in fact, for the La Porte County 
history contained in that large work called "The His- 
tory of La Porte County," published by Charles C. 
Chapman & Company in 1880. 



THE WAR RECORD. 17' 



Three hundred and twenty-eight pages of that 
work contain a history of Indiana gathered from 
various sources, but the true La Porte history, when 
one reaches it, is largely from General Packard. To 
him, therefore, the citizens of La Porte are indebted 
for the collection and preservation of their earlier 
history. 

I am glad to have been a co-ordinate worker with 
such a man as he w 7 as in collecting and preserving pi- 
oneer county history. And I am glad to have the aid 
of his La Porte History in this larger work in which 
I am now engaged, in gathering into one compact 
volume, small enough as to size to be conveniently 
readable, the history of our eight counties for one 
hundred years. 

His death recalls to mind the last time that I met 
with him. It was one Sunday, in the city of La Porte, 
several years ago. He was on his way to Sunday school 
with his Bible under his arm as I passed him, and we 
exchanged greetings on the street. He was, while a 
public man, our representative in Congress for a time, 
also a church-goer and a Sunday-school man, a soldier 
for a time in the great Union Army, he was also 
a soldier in that grander army called many times 
the Church Militant in distinction from that grandest 
of all armies, in which surely he will have a place, 
known on earth as the Church Triumphant. 

T. H. B. 

Record. 1899. "General Jasper Packard, Com- 
mander of the Indiana State Soldiers' Home, died at 
his residence in Lafayette, December 13. General 
Packard was a man well known throughout the State 
as a politician and journalist, and was one of the lead- 
ing men of Indiana." 



CHAPTER XIII. 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 

Members of different denominations were among 
the pioneers. Especially were there Methodists, Pres- 
byterians, Baptists, United Brethren, and Quakers. 
Other denominations were also represented. 

It was very needful and quite pleasant, for a time, 
that all the members of the small neighborhoods 
should meet together and listen, sometimes to a Meth- 
odist minister, sometimes to a Presbyterian, and then 
again to a Baptist. All could worship in harmony, 
and all would get some good from the Scripture ex- 
positions of those earnest, zealous men, who first as 
religious teachers came among the settlers. To those 
yet remaining who enjoyed those earliest religious 
gatherings in private rooms and little log school 
houses, and in the groves in summer time, the remem- 
brance is pleasant now. There was a simplicity, a 
reality, in the worship then, of which but little re- 
mains now. As settlements increased the larger de- 
nominations began to organize themselves into con- 
gregations for church activity and growth. 

Some account of the formation of the earliest 
churches as it has been gathered from different sources 
will here be given ; and then the number of members 
of the various churches at the present time. The 
struggles, the changes, the individual church history, 
from the organization of each till 1900, would fill. a 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 179 

quite large volume. Some of the denominations, it 
will appear, have succeeded much better than others, 
in maintaining church life and in securing a fair 
amount of growth. The real good accomplished can- 
not be estimated by any standards or measurements 
known in this world. Some churches die and some 
live. As it is with men so it is with organizations, 
who can tell what is really failure and what is suc- 
cess? In the realm of the moral and the spiritual 
neither wealth nor numbers can be the sure criterion 
by which to determine what God at last will call suc- 
cess. From the words "Well done," when uttered 
by the great Judge there will be no appeal. 

Members of the following denominations at length 
formed organizations in these counties, and some brief 
notices of each will be given : Methodist Episcopal, 
German Methodist Episcopal, Congregational, Pres- 
byterian, United Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, Re- 
formed, Protestant Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Uni- 
tarian, Second Adventists, Disciples or "Christians," 
Quaker? or Friends, "New Church" or Swedenbor- 
gians, Free Methodists, United Brethren, Believers, 
German Evangelical, and Union. Also a congrega- 
tion of Mormons, claiming to be Christians. 

An order passed by the Board of Commissioners 
of Porter County in February, 1842, gives a partial 
list of the denominations then. They had in 1841 
closed the doors of the court house "against preaching 
by any denomination of Christians." So reads their 
order; but now they say: "Ordered by the Board, 
that the Methodists, Presbyterians, Mormons, Uni- 
versalists, Baptists, Campbellites, Associate Reform- 
ers, Infidels and all other denominations be allowed 
to hold meetings in the court house, provided they 



180 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



do not interfere with the business of the courts of the 
county and political meetings." 

I. The Episcopal Methodists. 

As introductory to the iSethodist history of this 
part of the State may be fittingly placed here the fol- 
lowing statements from the Rev. Dr. R. D. Utter's 
"Conference History." 

In 1820 there were in Indiana eleven circuits, all 
in the south part of the State. Three of these were in 
the Miami District of Ohio Conference, and eight in 
the Indiana District of Missouri Conference. In 1824 
the Illinois Conference was established and all of In- 
diana was assigned to that Conference. In 1832, in 
October, was organized at New Albany the Indiana 
Conference, this then including the entire State. 

Dr. J. L. Smith, author of an excellent history of 
Indiana Methodism, states, that in 1844 the North 
Indiana Conference was formed, the iine dividing the 
two passing through Indianapolis. In 1852 a part of 
North Indiana was cut off and a new conference 
formed called North-West Indiana Conference, which 
held its first session in Terre Haute in September, 
1852. About the same time was also organized the 
South-East Indiana Conference, holding its first ses- 
sion at Rushville in October, 1852. In Indiana were 
then, at this time, four conferences, each cornering 
in Indianapolis. The four continued for some forty 
years, but a few years ago the two< in the south were 
united, leaving three conferences now in the State of 
Indiana. 

In 1823 Methodist church life commenced in In- 
dianapolis, and there their semicentennial was held in 
May, 1873. 

The first Methodist preaching in this region seems 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 181 

to have been in La Porte County, probably in 1832, 
possibly in 1831. 

According to a record or historical paper, pre- 
pared by Rev. G. M. Boyd, Rev. James Armstrong 
was appointed Superintendent or Presiding Elder of 
the northern district of Indiana, then called Mission- 
ary District, in the fall of 1832, at the first session of 
the Indiana Conference, and when he came into this 
part of his large district, he found an organization 
of Methodists gathered by a local preacher, Jeremiah 
Sherwood, near where Westville is now. This js con- 
sidered not only the first Methodist but probably the 
first Protestant organization in La Porte County. In 
the fall of 1832 an organization was formed, — thus the 
records reads — "at Door Village, or on a log in the 
grove where the village now stands." There, in 1833, 
a chapel was built. (Rev. G. M. Boyd calls this the 
first house of worship built north of the Wabash 
River, but the probability is that there was a Roman 
Catholic chapel at Bailly Town in 1827). In 1833 the 
name of the district "Missionary," was changed to 
"North Western." The work of gathering congre- 
gations went rapidly on. In 1834 the name was again 
changed to La Porte District. In 1836 Rev. G. M. 
Boyd was placed on the La Porte circuit with Stephen 
R. Jones as assistant. They now had fourteen places 
for preaching in the county. In 1837 a small brick 
church was built in La Porte. Union Chapel, the 
first church building in New Durham Township, was 
built in 1839. 

As Porter and also Lake County had at this time 
settlers, the missionary field extended from La Porte 
westward. 

Some of the statements now to be given rest on 



182 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

the authority of the Conference minutes, four bound 
volumes examined some years ago at the home of 
Rev. W. J. Forbes in Valparaiso, and some on his 
authority. 

In 1834 on the South Bend Circuit was stationed 
Stephen R. Ball. In that year no settlements, but 
few settlers in what became Lake County. Some in 
Porter County. In 1835 Deep River Mission was 
formed, Stephen Jones missionary. In 1836 assigned 
to Deep River Mission Jacob Colclazer. In 1837 
Hawley B. Beers. In 1838 Samuel K. Young. In 
1839 Kankakee Mission was formed, William J. 
Forbes missionary, who found on his entire field 
about one hundred members. In 1840 was formed 
Valparaiso Circuit, including Porter and Lake, W. J. 
Forbes minister in charge. In 1841 on this circuit 
Isaac M. Stagg. In 1842 Wade Posey. In 1843 
Warren Griffith. The Conference minutes say, Crown 
Point to be supplied. In 1844 North Indiana Con- 
ference is named and Crown Point is called a circuit. 

The Conference Minutes are to be considered first- 
class authority and officially correct, but in Mrs. Susan 
G. Wood's historic paper in "Lake County, 1884," 
which gives an excellent history of Methodism in 
Lake County, are some names of devoted ministers 
in Lake County that are not in the Conference Min- 
utes. These are, for the year 1839, as a supply, Robert 
Hyde, and again, in charge of the work, perhaps as a 
supply, a few years later, D. Crumbacker, and at the 
same time, in 1843 an d afterward, as a "local preacher 
of more than ordinary ability," Major Allman. (Mrs. 
Wood, a daughter of Rev. G. W. Taylor, has resided in 
Lake County since 1845.) 

Pulaski is, like Lake, quite largely a Roman 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 183 

Catholic county, yet the Methodists organized the first 
church in Winamac, as they are accustomed to do in 
most places. Their organized work commenced in 
1839, the year in which Winamac became the county 
seat, and but two years after what is called its first 
settlement. 

Although many settlers came in from Europe, yet 
the work of gathering congregations continued, and 
Pulaski has now nine Methodist churches and four 
chapters of the Epworth League. 

In White County the Methodists commenced or- 
ganized work in 1836 or 1837, the pioneer preachers 
being Richard L. Hargraves, John L. Smith, J. 
Ritchie, and Samuel Reed. There is a tradition that 
Rev. Mr. Lowrey preached the first sermon in the 
county at the house of Robert Spencer. He came 
from Rockville, but whether a Methodist or Presby- 
terian the tradition does not state. 

With such missionaries and pastors as those 
named above the work of gathering congregations 
and erecting church buildings would go rapidly for- 
ward. 

The Methodist Episcopal congregations in White 
County are, in Monon, Monticello, Reynolds, Tal- 
madge, Wolcott, Idaville, Burnettsville, Brookston, 
and three country congregations. 

In what became Newton County the Methodist 
preaching was for several years across the state line 
in Illinois, but at length congregations were gathered 
and church buildings erected in Kentland and Good- 
land and Morocco. 

In Jasper County the first sermon, according to 
the tradition and record, was preached by Rev. Mr. 
Walker, a Methodist, at the house of a widow, Mrs. 



184 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Thomas. Date not given. But the first good-sized 
Methodist church in Rensselaer was built in 1849. 

After Remington commenced town growth, in 
i860, a church building was soon erected there. 

In other parts of the county, congregations were 
gathered and church buildings erected. 

In Starke County, what success attended the labors 
of the first Methodist preacher, "Elder Munson," has 
not been ascertained, but in 1856 there was a church 
building at Knox, and besides the congregation and 
church in the county seat, there are Methodist Epis- 
copal churches in North Judson and San Pierre and 
Hamlet, making four now in Starke County. And 
they have good Sunday schools. 

The date of the mission work in Starke has not 
been found, but L. W. Munson was on the La Porte 
circuit in 1843. 

In 1844 the Indiana Conference met at Fort 
Wayne, and for the next conference year, the names 
of the pastors are : Monticello, A. D. Beasley, G. W. 
Warren; Rensselaer, N. N. Werdon ; Winamac, 
Franklin Taylor; La Porte, John B. De Motte; Val- 
paraiso, Jacob Cozad; Crown. Point, Jeremiah Early. 

Knox and Kentland as yet were not. 

In 1852, when Valparaiso was set off as a station, 
the preaching places in Porter County were fourteen : 
Valparaiso, Morgan Prairie, Kankankee, Ohio, Han- 
na's Mill, City West, Jackson Center, Griffith's 
Chapel, Horse Prairie, Hebron, Union Chapel, Twen- 
. ty-Mile Grove, Salt Creek, Louis Pennocks. 

Presiding elders of the Valparaiso District since 
1852: 

J. L. Smith, W. Graham, B. W.inans, James John- 
son, Conrad S. Burgner, S. T. Cooper, W. R. Mikels, 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 185 

1871-1875. R. D. Utter 1875-1879. S. Godfrey, 1879- 
1880. For a time no Valparaiso District. J. L. Smith 
1886-1890. J. H. Wilson 1891-1895. S. Beck 1896 to 
the present time. 

The date, 1840, is given for the organization of the 
present church in Valparaiso, church building com- 
mencing in 1848. Membership in 1852 two hundred 
and forty-five. 

The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the 
Conference was organized about 1870. In 1876' Mrs. 
J. P. Early of La Porte was elected Conference Sec- 
retary of the Society. She left for California in the 
winter of 1880. In April of 1881 she resigned her 
secretaryship. She came not back to Indiana again. 

In 1897 was published, by Rev. George R. Streeter, 
an interesting volume, the Conference Biographical 
Album. This contained likenesses and short sketches 
of many of the active members of the Northern Indi- 
ana Conference. 

The History of Indiana Methodism, by Dr. John 
L. Smith, has been already mentioned. Dr. Smith 
came into Indiana and commenced preaching in 1840. 
That was a summer of great revivals, "some of the 
most remarkable," says Dr. Smith, "ever witnessed in 
the West." Laboring among the Indiana Methodists 
for so many years, he was well fitted, in that respect, 
to write their history. 

Of Dr. John L. Smith, to whom the Methodists of 
Indiana owe much, Rev. Dr. Utter says : "His last 
appointment, 1886, was Valparaiso District. He re- 
mained in charge of the district five years, when, at 
South Bend, October 6, 1891, fifty-one years from the 
date of his admission on trial, * * * he requested 
the Conference to grant him a superannuated rela- 
tion." 



186 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

"At the close of the Conference session, 1891, he 
retired to his cottage home in Valparaiso, where, at 5 
P. M., Saturday, March 11, 1899, in the eighty-eighth 
year of his age and the fifty-ninth of his ministry, he 
was transferred from the militant ranks to the Church 
triumphant, from earthly toil to his home in heaven." 
(See Conference Minutes of 1899.) 

In La Porte County are now fourteen Methodist 
churches and two German Methodist. These are at 
Michigan City, La Porte, Westville, Union Mills, 
Wanatsh, Hanna, Door Village, and in country places 
called Summit, Waterford, Salem, Bald Hill, Rolling 
Prairie (this a railroad station), Lamb's Chapel, and 
Posey's Chapel. 

Since 1876 the g*ain in membership has been four 
hundred. 

In Porter County are ten. In Lake thirteen, White 
eleven, Pulaski nine, Starke four, Newton three, Jas- 
per three, perhaps four. 

Present membership, 1899. 

The following figures are given on the authority 
of the Minutes of the Northwest Indiana Conference 
for 1899. All the preaching stations in the counties 
are not given in the Minutes, but the membership of 
the smaller localities is probably included in the larger. 
It appears that in our eight counties there are forty- 
three preachers "in charge" or as supplies, and seven- 
teen local preachers, making in all sixty Methodist 
ministers in North-Western Indiana for the year 1899. 

For the fifteen different objects for which these 
churches contribute in the year, aside from ordinary 
expenses, the Valparaiso District, in which most of 
these churches are, contributed, not .including Royal 
Center, $5,217. Adding to this amount the contribu- 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 187 

lions from Brookston in La Fayette District, and of 
the ten amounts reported in South Bend District, 
$1,658, and the full amount will be $6,875. These 
congregations also paid in the same year for pastoral 
support, including presiding elders and bishops' 
amounts, more than thirty-three thousand dollars. And 
the amount of expenses in Valparaiso District alone 
were more than seven thousand dollars. Over fifty 
thousand dollars, in round numbers, will be the 
amount raised by the Methodist congregations in the 
year 1899. 

The following is the membership by counties : 
Lake, 1090; Porter, 1263; La Porte, 1420; Starke, 
360 ; Pulaski, 865 ; White, 1462 ; Jasper, 762 ; Newton, 
1 189. Total, 8541. 

The average membership, it thus appears, is nearly 
one thousand and seventy in a county. 

Number of Methodist Episcopal Sunday schools, 
88. Membership in these schools, 8,921. The average 
of Sunday-school membership is about eleven hundred 
and fifteen for a county. 

The Epworth League force is also quite strong, 
although included largely in the church membership 
and school membership. 

2. German Episcopal Methodists. 

Of these there are in Lake County four churches. 
The oldest is in Hanover Township on Lake Prairie. 
The earliest families of this church were the Beckley 
family, about 1840, George Krinbill and family in 
185 1, and then many others. A church was organ- 
ized and a building was erected about 1853. In 1874, a 
church at Crown Point was organized, a church build- 
ing was completed, and at about the same time a third 
one at Hobart. Still later the fourth organization was 



188 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

perfected at Hammond. For fifty years the German 
Methodists have been an important part of the re- 
ligious element of Lake County. They have had ex- 
cellent pastors, they have been active in Sunday-school 
work, there has been vitality in their religion. 

In these later years the oldest and strongest con- 
gregation has been declining, as families not of their 
faith have taken the lands which once they occupied. 
Numbering in the county in 1884 about one hundred 
and fifty members, they now number, with a large in- 
crease at Hammond, about two hundred and thirty. 

In La Porte County they have an old and strong 
congregation, with one hundred and seventy-five 
members, in the city of La Porte; and at Michigan 
City they have one hundred and twenty-five members. 
At Crown Point and Hammond, at Michigan City 
and La Porte, besides church buildings, they have 
good parsonages. Entire membership, five hundred 
and thirty. They have only four resident pastors, and 
the total amount they raise is, including the same 
items as were included in tfie notice of the American 
Methodists, forty-two hundred dollars. So it appears 
that where the American Methodists raise an amount 
equal to six dollars for each member, the German 
Methodists raise an amount equal to eight dollars for 
each member. 

3. Swedish Episcopal Methodists. 

Of these there is one organization in Lake County, 
at Hobart, church building erected in 1889. Mem- 
bership, . Probably membership forty. 

4. The Congregationalists. 

There were not many of this denomination among 
the pioneers. It is mainly in these later years that 
these churches have been spreading outward from 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 189 

New England. For the following statistics the Con- 
gregational Year Book for 1899 is the authority. 

In La Porte County are three churches, all at 
Michigan City. 1. Michigan City 1st Congrega- 
tional, organized in 1835, present membership 264; 
number in Sabbath school, 152; benevolent contribu- 
tions, $180; home expenses, $1,675. 2 - Emmanuel, 
German, organized 1891 ; membership, 43; in Sunday 
school, 72 ; for benevolent objects, $63 ; home ex- 
penses, $537- 3. Sandborn Memorial Church, Scan- 
dinavian, organized 1893; members, 39; in school, 30; 
for benevolence, $20; home expenses, $381. 

In Porter County is one church, Porter, organized 
1891 ; members, 53 ; in school, 175 ; benevolence, $53 ; 
home expenses, $575. 

In Lake County are five churches : Hobart, or- 
ganized in 1885; Hammond, 1887; Ross, 1888; East 
Chicago, 1889; Whiting, 1890. Membership in 1899: 
Hobart, 63; Hammond, 51; Ross, 31; East Chicago, 
66; Whiting, 64. In Sunday school: Hobart, 120; 
Hammond, 142; Ross, 52; East Chicago, 50; Whiting, 
150. 

For benevolent objects in Lake County, including 
missions, total amount $265. East Chicago and Whit- 
ing contributing over ninety dollars each. 

For home expenses: Hobart, $550; Hammond, 
$500 ; Ross, $222 ; East Chicago, $900 ; Whiting, 



Totals. Churches, 9; membership, 674; in Sun- 
day school, 943 ; benevolent objects of different kinds 
outside of home expenses, $581 ; home expenses, 
$6,029. Total amount of money raised in the year, 
$6,600. Nearly ten dollars for each member, or more 
exactly, nine dollars and about eighty cents. 



190 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

5. The Presbyterians. 

In the West and in the South Presbyterian min- 
isters, although apparently not so well adapted to the 
ways and needs of frontier life as some others, have 
nevertheless gone into new settlements, carrying their 
very thorough education, their scholarly ways, and 
their dignity and culture, into the homes of the pio- 
neers. If not always the first, they have generally 
been second or third to enter upon new fields. The 
first in promoting and building up schools they have 
generally been. 

LA PORTE COUNTY. 

As early as 183 1, "in trie late autumn," the first 
Presbyterian man, Myron Ives, settled on Rolling 
Prairie, "just east of the Little Kankakee," in a log 
cabin. In May, 1832, Mrs. Rebecca Ives, his mother, 
and his sister, Mrs. Sarah Aldrich, came with their 
families and settled near ; and soon also, into the same 
neighborhood, came Alexander Blackburn. Soon, in 
the true Christian spirit of worship they commenced a 
neighborhood prayer meeting which was held each 
Sabbath in the Ives or Blackburn cabin. Presbyte- 
rian church life there commenced. 

In November, 1832, Rev. James Crawford from 
the Wabash region held religious services in the cabin 
of Alexander Blackburn in Kankakee Township, and 
in 1833 completed the organization of a church with 
twenty members. The elders were James Blair, W. 
C. Ross, David Dinwiddie, and Myron Ives. Meet- 
ings were held in a log school house on the Niles road. 
For some reason the locality of this church was 
changed to the young and growing county seat and it 
was called the Presbyterian Church of La Porte. This 
church was what was then called Old School. In 1837 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 191 

work on a church building was commenced, but the 
house was not dedicated before 1842. In November, 
1844, a New School Presbyterian church was consti- 
tuted "in a school house belonging to Rev. F. P. 
Cummins." 

Some of the ministers who were pastors or sup- 
plies of the first church were John Morrill in 1834, 
W. K. Talbot in 1835, W. K. Marshall in 1837, until 
October, 1844. The membership increased from 
ninety-six to one hundred and fifty while he was 
pastor. 

Rev. F. P. Cummins, a successful teacher of a pri- 
vate, academic school, was pastor from 1851 to 1858. 
Some other pastors were : J. W. Hanna, R. S. Good- 
man, S. C. Spofford, and L. M. Stevens. 

Some of the pastors of the second church were : 
From 1846 to 1858, John W. Cunningham, in the 
first year of whose ministry, after he was duly in- 
stalled, eighty-eight were added to the church mem- 
bership ; from 1859 to 1868, George C. Noyes, the 
church membership in 1866 having reached nearly 
three hundred. 

In 1 87 1, October 31st, the two churches were 
united, and Rev. John F. Kendall, D. D., became pas- 
tor. His was a long and successful pastorate. 

The present pastor is Reuben H. Hartley. This 
church, with its present membership, according to the 
Assembly Minutes of 1899, of 365 members, raised 
in the year, for various objects, $4,830, or more than 
thirteen dollars for each member. It is a strong 
church, with an "elegant church building" and a large 
Sunday school, and ought to be in the city of La 
Porte, along with the other strong churches there, as 
no doubt it is, a large factor for good. 



192 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

In 1845 a New School Presbyterian Church was 
organized near Union Mills, but it did not grow and 
live. 

What may be called the second, now living church 
in La Porte County, was constituted, with ten mem- 
bers, by Rev. F. P. Cummins, in a school house east 
of Union Mills, June 22, 1850. It took the name of 
Bethel Presbyterian Church. A building was in due 
time erected at Union Mills. The church has had 
several supplies and a few installed pastors, and has 
now one hundred and twenty members and a large 
Sunday school. 

The present Rolling Prairie Church may be called 
the third in the county, organized in February, 1852, 
with twenty-eight members, and now reporting onh 
twenty. 

And the fourth, not counting one organized in 
1870 with a few members at Wanatch, but which has 
ceased to exist, is the present Presbyterian Church 
at Michigan City, organized May 9, 1871, with thirty- 
nine members. The first elders elcted were: J. S. 
Ford, John Orr, J. A. Thornton, and Henry W. John- 
son. 

In 1872 a church building was erected and Rev. 
J. Q. Hall was installed as pastor. In 1896, in Febru- 
ary, the church building was destroyed by fire. A 
new building on other ground was erected in 1897. 

Present membership about two hundred. Nurmber 
in Sunday school in 1900, 215. Of this large and well 
conducted school H. W. Johnson has been Superin- 
tendent for twenty-five years, and A. B. Barron, Sec- 
retary for eight years, and two better officers than 
these have been need not anywhere be sought. 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 193 

PORTER COUNTY. 

Rev. J. C. Brown, a young licentiate, began preach- 
ing in Valparaiso December 4, 1839, and July 3, 1840, 
having been ordained, he with Rev. W. K. Marshall 
of La Porte organized the Presbyterian Church of 
Valparaiso with ten constituent members, James Blair 
and M. B. Crosby being the first elders. A Sunday 
school, at first Union, was organized by Mrs., Brown 
and the pastor's brother, Hugh A. Brown, near the 
close of 1840. 

Both church and school prospered. A frame church 
building was erected, and at length, the present mas- 
sive brick structure became needful. The church has 
had few pastoral changes. Dr. Brown, a remarkable 
man, teacher, preacher, Sunday-school worker, full of 
labor and of untiring zeal, taking, so it was said, his 
breakfast at six, his dinner at twelve, and his supper 
at six, all the year round, continued as pastor till Sep- 
tember 4, i860. In 1862 he was appointed Chaplain 
of the Twenty-eighth Regiment of Indiana Volun- 
teers, and died in a hospital at Paducah, Kentucky, 
July 14, 1862. He had preached not only in Valpa- 
raiso, but at Tassinong, Salem, Twenty-Mile Prairie, 
Eagle Creek Prairie, and at Crown Point. In his 
twenty years of a busy ministry he received into 
church membership four hundred and seventy-five 
members. Well did one of his successors, Rev. Rob- 
ert Beer, say of him : "Dr. Brown was a man of such 
piety, zeal, activity, and self-denial, as to make an im- 
pression never to be forgotten by those who knew 
him." 

The second pastor was Rev. S. C. Logan, from 
October 14, i860, to July, 1865. The third was Rev. 



194 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Robert Beer, from December 17, 1865, to later than 
1882. The fourth was a more than ordinary man in 
the qualities of a winning, noble, vigorous manhood, 
Rev. S. N. Wilson. His successors have been Rev. 
H. B. Fleming, now pastor at Hammond, and the 
present pastor, Rev. Martin Luther. Six pastors only 
in sixty years. 

The Presbyterian Church at Tassinong was or- 
ganized by Rev. J. C^ Brown, and has been supplied 
usually with preaching from Valparaiso and Hebron. 

Tbe Presbyterian Church at Hebron was organ- 
ized by Rev. S. C. Logan of Valparaiso and Rev. J. L. 
Lower of Crown Point, October 29, i860, with four- 
teen members. First elders : William Mackey and 
Amos A. Burwell. Pastors, J. L. Lower, A. Y. Moore, 
Robert Beer, and others from Valparaiso or Crown 
Point, and in these later years having a resident pas- 
tor, or a seminary student. 

LAKE COUNTY. 

The pioneer Presbyterian minister in Lake County 
was the Rev. J. C. Brown of Valparaiso, who made 
an exploring visit westward in 1840 and reached the 
home of the Ball family at the Red Cedar Lake, which 
was then one of the two religious centers of Lake 
County, and in that home he preached, as it is believed, 
the first Presbyterian sermon in the county. 

He returned to Crown Point, the new county 
seat, found there two Presbyterian women, Mrs. Hol- 
ton and Mrs. Fancher, arranged for preaching in the 
log court house, alternating these with the Baptist 
pastor, Rev. N. Warriner, encouraging the Union Sun- 
dav school which held its sessions in the same room, 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 195 

and there, April 27, 1844, he organized a Presbyterian 
Church with eighteen members. The pastors suc- 
ceeding him were Rev. William Townley, from 1846 
to 1856, Rev. Mr. Schultz, J. L. Lower, A. Y. Moore, 
S. McKee, Dr. S. Fleming, W. J. Young, J. McAlis- 

ter, Rev Carson, B. E. S. Ely, E. S. Miller, L. 

W. A. Luckey, Ph. D., J. A. Cole, W. O. Lattimore, 
and the present pastor, Dr. Hearst. 

A church building was erected between 1845 an d 
1847. The last services were held in this building 
August 10, 1884, when it was replaced by a much 
larger brick-veneered edifice. Present membership, 74. 

The second Presbyterian Church of the county 
was organized November 9, 1856, on Lake Prairie, 
in the New Hampshire Settlement, with twelve mem- 
bers. These New Hampshire familfes had the year 
before made a settlement in the heart of the open 
prairie, a prairie so beautiful that some three years 
afterwards Professor Mills of Wabash College, having 
looked over the landscape from a knoll on one of the 
farms, said: "I have been thirty years in the West 
and have been in every county in the State, and never 
but once have I seen so beautiful a view." 

Of this church on the prairie Rev. Hiram Wason, 
then from Vevay, Indiana, but a native of New Eng- 
land, in 1857 became pastor. Alter seven years of 
faithful and successful service he resigned the pastoral 
charge, but continued to reside in the neighborhood 
where he made for himself and family a beautiful 
home, and continued to be active and useful until 
laid aside by the infirmities of age. He died in June, 
1898, eighty-three years of age. Some of his succes- 
sors were B. Wells, Edwin Post, Homer Sheeley, and 
for thirteen years past until 1898, Rev. J. F. Smith, 
now residing in Crown Point. 



196 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

A church building was erected at length, costing 
fifteen hundred dollars, and dedicated in 1872. This, 
while a true country church, has been, with its large 
Sunday school, a power for good of no little weight in 
the southwestern portion of the county. And it is 
doing no injustice to others to make this record : 
that the two Presbyterian ministers who have made 
the largest and most durable impressions for good 
upon the social and intellectual and religious life of 
Lake County have been Rev. William Townley and 
Rev. H. Wason. Were a third name to be added to 
these two it would be that of Rev. J. F. Smith, who 
for thirteen years, from 1885 to 1898, has been dili- 
gent in school and church work in the bounds of the 
Lake Prairie Church, who has taken a large interest 
in the public schools and in the social life of the com- 
munity. His public addresses on many occasions 
have been always interesting and instructive. 

A third Presbyterian Church was organized in the 
city of Hammond in 1890. This at once became a 
city church, erecting a quite costly edifice and enter- 
ing actively upon church and school life. 

A fourth church was organized at Plum Grove, 
in the south part of the county, with about twelve 
members, a few years ago, but it has lately been dis- 
banded. It was reported in the Minutes of 1899 and 
will be found named therefore in the concluding sum- 
mary. 

OTHER COUNTIES. 

In Pulaski County the Presbyterians seem not to 
have made an early beginning; but there are now two 
Presbyterian churches in the county : one at Winamac 
with eighty members and a Sabbath school of seventy- 
five members ; the other at Pulaski with sixty mem- 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 197 

bers and a school of sixty-five members. Also a 
Christian Endeavor society connected with each 
church. Rev. Samuel B. Neilson, residing- at Win- 
amac, pastor of both churches. 

It has been said that about one-half of the popula- 
tion of Pulaski County were Roman Catholics, but 
that must be too large an estimate; for in the county 
are United Brethren, Lutheran, Advent, five "Chris- 
tian," and nine Methodist churches, besides the two 
Presbyterian; four chapters of the Epworth League, 
and seven Christian Endeavor societies. Also forty- 
four Sunday schools. 

Of the County Sunday School Association (1899) 
Miss Emily Hoch is President, Mr. E. C. W. Dunn of 
Star City, Secretary. 

The first Presbyterian Church in White County 
was organized in 1836, Rev. J. Stocker the minister. 
The first meeting was in the cabin of John Wilson, a 
mile west of Monticello, then the members met in 
school houses and in the court house. This church 
was Old School. First settled pastor, Rev. Alexander 
Williamson, in 1840. Soon afterwards Rev. Samuel 
Steele organized a New School church, and this or- 
ganization in 1842 erected, it is said, the first church 
building of the county. First pastor, Rev. W. M. 
Cheever, in 1843. 

In White County, in which both Baptists and Pres- 
byterians seem equally to prosper, are now nine Pres- 
byterian churches or congregations, but some have no 
church buildings. 

In Newton County are two: one at Kentland, one 
at Goodland. In Jasper there is one at Remington 
and one at Rensselaer. In Starke County there seems 
to be for Presbyterians as until very recently for Bap- 
tists no need. 



198 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

The first Presbyterian minister preaching in Jas- 
per County was Rev. John A. Williamson of Monti- 
cello. In 1849 or I ^5° was erected the first Presbyte- 
rian church building. 

SUMMARY. 

Most of the following figures are given on the 
authority of the Minutes of the General Assembly for 
1899. These churches are all in the Presbytery of 
Logansport, Synod of Indiana. The first figures, after 
the name of the church, give the membership, and the 
second number gives the members in Sunday school. 

Churches in Lake County, 4. Crown Point, 74, 
no; Lake Prairie, 34, 75; Hammond, 94, 100; Plum 
Grove, 17. Total membership 219, 285. 

Churches in Porter County, 3. Valparaiso, 238, 
201 ; Tassinong, 68, 25 ; Hebron, 59, 40. Total, 385, 
266. 

Churches in La Porte County, 4. La Porte, 365, 
260; Michigan City, 180, 215; Union Mills or Bethel, 
120, 186; Rolling Prairie, 20. Total, 685, 661. 

Churches in "Pulaski County, 2. Winamac, 75, 
125 ; Pulaski, 50, 125. Total membership, 125, 250. 

Churches in White County, 8. Monticello, 310, 
345 ; Brookston, 96, 71 ; Chalmers, 83, 71 ; Idaville, 71, 
94; Monon, 50, 100; Bedford, 33, 69; Meadow Lake 
or Wolcott, 50, 50; Buffalo, 25. Total membership, 
718, 800. 

Churches in Jasper County, 2. Rensselaer, 100, 
90; Remington, 100, 100. Total, 200, 190. 

Churches in Newton County, 2. Kentland, no, 
94; Goodland, 152, 138. Total membership, 262, 232. 

Whole number of churches, 25. Total member- 
ship, 2,594. In schools, 2,684. Amount of money 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 199 

raised in the year, including twelve items, $27,285. 
This is about $10.50 per member. 

6. United Presbyterians. 

The "Bethlehem Church of Associate Reform 
Presbyterians" was an early and probably the first 
church of this denomination in Northwestern Indiana. 
It was organized July 28, 1838, one month after the 
organization of the "Cedar Lake Baptist Church." 
The organizing minister was Rev. Hannon. The 
first members were "Samuel Turner and wife, Thomas 
Dinwiddie and wife, Berkley Oliver and wife, Susanna 
Dinwiddie, Sr., Susanna Dinwiddie, Jr., Margaret 
Dinwidciie, Mary McCarnehan, Susan P. West, John 
W. Dinwiddie, David T. Dinwiddie, Margaret J. Din- 
widdie, and Elza A. Dinwiddie."* Rev. Wilson Blain 
was the first pastor. The second was Rev. J. N. Bu- 
chanan, who came in May, 1851, and was installed, 
according to the custom of Presbyterian churches, 
November 29, 1851. He still resides near Hebron, 
but resigned as pastor in 1897. The present pastor is 
Rev. J. A. Barnes. 

The members of the Bethlehem Church met first 
at the homes of their members, then in the school 
house, then they erected a log building about a mile 
south of Hebron, and in 1852 a frame build- 
ing, still nearer to the village, which was 
moved into Hebron in 1864, and in 1879 tne pres- 
ent church was erected. The first frame building 
cost twelve hundred dollars and the present one 
twenty-five hundred. The name Bethlehem was soon 
changed to Hebron, probably at the suggestion of 
Rev. W. Blain, through whose efforts a postofifice 



*G. A. Garard in "Porter and Lake," 1882. 



200 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

was secured for the young village at "the Corners," 
and as there was one Bethlehem postoffice in Indiana 
some other name than that must be found. So church 
and town both took the old Bible name of Hebron. 

The name "Associate Reform" of the denomina- 
tion was changed many years ago to "United Presby- 
terian." Mr. Buchanan preached not only in Porter 
County, but for many years in Lake County at the 
South East Grove and Center school houses, and, 
in later years, at Le Roy, where, February 18, 1888, 
a second United Presbyterian Church was organized, 
members of the Reformed Presbyterian body uniting 
with others in its organization. A neat and good 
church building was soon erected and a Sabbath 
school organized. Pastor, Rev. J. A. Barnes. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 

7. The Baptists. 

Among the religious denominations the Baptists 
made the first start in White County, commencing 
evangelical work in 1834, the year in which the county 
was organized. The pioneer preachers were, with per- 
haps, some others, "Elders Reese, Corbin, and Miner." 
They organized the first church in the new county. 
For some reason — Baptists are sometimes rather 
slow — the Baptists in White County, for many years, 
erected no church building ; but at length "bought the 
Old School Presbyterian Church." The noble, de- 
voted pioneer ministers passed away. But in White 
County the results remained. Growth took place, a 
more progressive age, so called, came on. About 
1S60 was formed the Monticello Baptist Association, 
as elsewhere mentioned ; and besides the church in 
Monticello, churches were organized called Pine 
Grove, Mount Zion, Brookston, Motion, Liberty 
Township, West Point, Wolcott, Burnettsville, and 
Chalmers. It is the main Baptist county in North- 
western Indiana. One of these churches named, the 
Monticello Church, has ceased to exist; but there 
are now nine living Baptist churches in White County. 

Samuel Benjamin was the first Baptist minister 
whose name is found in the records of Newton County. 
The first Baptist meetings were held near the village 
of Brook. The churches of Newton now are : Prairie 



202 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Vine, Morocco, Mount Ayr, Goodland, and Beaver 
City. 

In Jasper County are three churches, at Rensse- 
laer with about ninety members, one called Kankakee, 
the pastor residing in North Judson, and the Milroy 
Township Church, organized quite recently by Rev. 
D. J. Huston with six members and now having 
about sixty, and its pastor, energetic, devoted, almost 
untiring in labors, passed several years ago that third 
"dead line" of three score an ten. There are sensible 
churches yet left in the land. 

The first Baptist ministers in Jasper were Elders 
Joseph Price and Samuel Benjamin. Of the years of 
their ministry and the results of their labors no rec- 
ords are found. 

In Starke County the first Baptist Church was 
organized December 3, 1899, with fifty-eight members 
through the labors of J. W. Keller, a licentiate. This 
is called the Nickel Plate Baptist Church. 

In Pulaski County there is no Baptist Church. 

The "first anniversary" of the Monticello Baptist 
Association was held at Rensselaer in i860. Its or- 
ganic life commenced with six churches. In 1867 
Rev. D. J. Huston came into the bounds of this Asso- 
ciation. He was soon chosen as Moderator and has 
held that office for twenty-five years. He is still an 
active pastor, having recently built up a promising 
and flourishing church a few miles south from Mc- 
Coysburg and secured the erection of a neat church 
building dedicated in 1899. He was born in 1822, 
was a student at Franklin College and would prob- 
ably have graduated in 1850 with the writer of this 
work, but duty of another kind seemed pressing, and 
he commenced pastoral work near Franklin in 1847, 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 203 

in the church where Dr. T. J. Morgan's father's fam- 
ily were members. 

In 1869 Rev. A. H. Dooley became a resident pas- 
tor and was elected after a little time Clerk of the 
Association. He remained in its bounds till 1889, 
having been pastor of the Prairie Vine Church for 
ten years. In forty years the Association has in- 
creased to sixteen churches. Present membership 
about thirteen hundred. 

July 25, 1899, was an important day for this Asso- 
ciation, and especially for the church at Morocco. The 
event, which on that day called many together, was 
the. laying of the corner-stone for a Baptist church 
building. The exercises, all, were of large interest. 
Rev. A. H. Dooley read a paper giving the history 
of the Baptist churches of Newton County, and "Rev. 
D. J. Huston, who has almost reached the four score 
limit, gave a good address and laid the corner-stone."* 
Addresses also were given by Rev. V. C. Fritts of 
Rensselaer, Rev. W. F. Carpenter of Goodland, and 
Rev. J. C. Boutell of St. Anne, Illinois. Also by the 
pastor of the United Brethren Church at Morocco, 
Rev. W. F. Hunt, and of the "Christian" Church, Rev. 
R. S. Cartwright. "Our venerable brother, Rev. A. I. 
Putnam, led in prayer."* The address of Rev. J. O. 
Boutell was given in the open air at the new church 
corner, where prayer was offered by Rev. A. H. Doo- 
ley. 

"The Baptist organization of Morocco is in its in- 
fancy. The pastor is the brave, enthusiastic Rev. P. 
H. Foulk, who has undertaken a great work for the 



*The Morocco Courier, July 29, 1899. 
*The Standard, August 5, 1899. 



204 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

town and community. The plan of the church, which 
is the product of Pastor Faulk's own mind, is of the 
institutional order. The building will contain, beside 
the ordinary auditorium and Sunday-school depart- 
ment, a library and reading room, a kitchen and parlor 
for social occasions, a well fitted system of baths, and 
a large modern gymnasium." The building is of brick 
and stone. The estimated cost five thousand dollars. 
This is the first building of its kind among the Bap- 
tists of Northwestern Indiana. Its success will be of 
no small interest among Indiana Baptists in the com- 
ing century. 

The pioneer Baptist ministers in La Porte County 
were: Phineas Colver in 1833 an d 1834, who organ- 
ized the first Baptist Church in Stillwell Prairie in 
1834; T. Spaulding in 1836; Alexander Hastings in 
1837; Benjamin Sawin in 1838; Charles Harding, 
Augustus Bolles, and Samuel W. Ford in 1839. The 
church organized in 1834 took the name of Kings- 
bury, Elder Sawin became the pastor. It is a living 
church now. 

The Rolling Prairie Church was organized June 
23, 1836, "at the house of James Hunt," ministers 
present Elder T. Price of Michigan and Elder T. 
Spaulding of La Porte. Constituent members, 
"James Hunt, John Salisbury, Matthias Dawson, 
Nancy Hunt, Catherine Whitehead, Sarah Mason, 
Phoebe Hunt, Clarrissa Canada, Sabina Salisbury, Al- 
sie Dawson, and Martha Whitehead."* In 1839 a 
church house "was built on the grounds of George 
Belohaw." 

This was for some years a large and prosperous 



♦General Packard's History. 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 205 

church, having in 1853 one hundred and forty-eight 
members. In 1861 it reported sixty-five members. In 
1864 only forty-four. In 1870 "No report." It ceased 
to exist. 

In the days of its prosperity it sent out several 
young men as ministers; among them Thomas L. 
Hunt, who in a few years finished up his life work 
in the county of Lake, where his dust reposes ; as a 
man, a Christian, and a pastor, amiable, exemplary, 
and devoted beyond many; and J. M. Whitehead, a 
man of power, a tower of strength, among Indiana 
and Illinois pastors, for many years ; a chaplain of 
note in the Union Army in the time of the war for 
the life of the Government ; now in Topeka, Kansas, 
(1899), a man known and honored by many thou- 
sands. 

The following extract from a letter written Sep- 
tember 9, 1898, by John M. Hunt of Oakland, Oregon, 
to his cousin, Mrs. M. L. Barber of Burlington, Kan- 
sas, referring to this once flourishing church, is so 
applicable to other early churches, only changing 
names, that it is given a place here. To some yet 
living it will have a special, personal interest. 

"There is one plain picture now before me that 
often presents itself, and that is. where we were often 
at church, your uncle Milton [Rev. J. M. Whitehead] 
and brother Thomas [Rev. Thomas L. Hunt] in the 
pulpit of the old church, your uncle Jasper and 
deacon Betteys just in front, and just behind on the 
next seat, uncle John Hefner, brother William, and 
uncle David Stoner, and a few others. Then your 
uncle Newton, and Alfred Salisbury, and several 
more male singers, and a half dozen female singers, 
rise and join in singing old Coronation ; and as they 



206 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

sing I see your Grandmother and Mrs. Betteys and 
your aunt Polly, and many others, all drinking in 
the music, while the seats on each side are full, but 
some of the faces are almost faded out, while many 
others are very distinct yet. Shall we meet again? 
Yes, in the great 'Beyond' we shall meet again. Those 
who have loved the Lord and tried to do His will, as 
they understood the word, will surely join in singing 
that 'New Song' that the 'Revelator' speaks of, 
whether they were members of our church or not, or 
may be not members of any church." Surely a blissful 
hope ! And quite surely with no Baptist church build- 
ing- in Northern Indiana are more rich and pleasant 
associations connected than with that old frame build- 
ing and its large, box-like pulpit of Rolling Prairie. 
Such men as have preached from that pulpit are not 
readily found now. The revival there in mid-summer 
of 1839, Elder A. Hastings, in the prime of his man- 
hood, pastor, was one to be through life remembered. 
And the ordination there, February 27, 1846, of T. L. 
Hunt, Stephen G. Hunt, and J. Milton Whitehead, 
was one of the memorable occasions. "For nearly five 
years these three young brethren supplied the pulpit 
of the Rolling Prairie Church, preached in the neigh- 
borhoods around, and kept up, for a time, six Sab- 
bath schools." 

"During the five years of labor on Rolling Prairie 
about sixty were baptized by the three home mission- 
aries." 

But abundant as is the material we must leave this 
once consecrated place, where such men as Elder 
Hastings and Elder Sawin have been, and in the 
neighborhood of which they died, .both living to an 
advanced age ; and such visitors from Central Indiana 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 207 

as Elder W. Rees and Elder U. B. Miller, and where 
Elder S. W. Miller, the veteran of all, so often 
preached. Of the last named, this record must be 
made. Born in July, 1812, married in Ohio in May, 
1834, ordained at Belmont, for fifty-five years he was 
actively engaged in the work of the ministry, and is 
still living with his wife (1899) sixty-five years from 
the time of his marriage, in their comfortable and 
pleasant home in the city of La Porte, not able to 
engage in active duties as formerly, having been twice 
injured by accidents, yet enjoying a good degree of 
health. He can recall the names of some thirty min- 
isters with whom he has been associated who have 
gone before him to the other shore. He is now more 
than eighty-seven years of age. Near him reside his 
son-in-law, Rev. W. S. Hastings, and at Door Vil- 
lage, one of his associate laborers, Rev. G. F. Bray- 
ton, both born March 24, 1822, both now retired from 
active ministerial labors, although ten years younger 
than Elder Miller. Honor should ever be given to 
whom honor is due. The pastors now are young. 
With some churches the "dead line" is fifty, and with 
some it is down to forty. Shame ! 

The La Porte Church was organized in 1838. This 
is now the large Baptist Church of the county. Its 
earlier pastors were Charles Harding till 1840; Silas 
Tucker, afterwards Dr. Tucker of Logansport, till 
1845; E. W. Hamlin for one year, 1846; Morgan Ed- 
wards, "the sailor preacher," for a few months in 
1849; R. H. Cook for a year and a half, to July, 1851 ; 
for a short time in 1852 again Morgan Edwards; S. 
C. Chandler, and in 1853 Gibbon Williams. In later 
years quite a number have been pastors, among them 
H. Smith, J. P. Ash, and Addison Parker. Present 
pastor, Rev. G. C. Moor. 



208 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

The other living churches of the county are, Swed- 
ish Baptist at La Porte, organized in 1884, and the 
church at Michigan City, in 1889. Michigan City is 
another of those places where it has been difficult for 
a Baptist church to live. One was organized in that 
then young town in 1836 or early in 1837. Its life as 
a church was short. Again in 1853 a "newly con- 
stituted" church at Michigan City was "received" into 
the Northern Indiana Association. Pastor "Rev. A. 
Hastings." But soon its visibility was lost. A third 
church was organized in 1889 and it is not yet re- 
garded as a self-supporting church. Seventy-nine 
Baptist are a small band among fifteen thousand peo- 
ple. 

The early Baptist history of Porter County is ob- 
scure. Some claim that Rev. Alpheus French, known 
as Elder French, an aged Baptist minister, preached 
the first sermon in Valparaiso in 1836. Others think 
that a Baptist church was organized in Center Town- 
ship in 1835 or 1836 by Rev. Asahel Neal and that 
he preached the first sermon in Valparaiso in the 
house of William Eaton. If such a church was or- 
ganized it did not live. In 1836 there were in the 
county four ministers, Eider French, Baptist ; W. K. 
Talbott, Presbyterian ; Cyrus Spurlock and Stephen 
Jones, Methodists. 

The present church in Valparaiso was organized 
June 10, 1837, with twelve members. First deacons, 
John Robinson and John Bartholomew. First clerk, 
Jacob C. White. 

The name, First Baptist Church of Valparaiso, 
was adopted February 8, 1840. The first pastor was 
Elder French, who continued for five years. The sec- 
ond was H. S. Orton. The third was W. T. Bly, 1844 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 209 

to 1847. The fourth was Elder A., Nickerson, for five 
years. The fifth was Harry Smith, 1854, continuing 
as pastor for six years. The sixth was G. T. Brayton 
for one year. The seventh was Jirah D. Cole, one 
year, May, 1861, to May, 1862. The eighth, J. M. 
Maxwell, nearly two years. The ninth, M. T. Lamb, 
one year. The tenth, Otis Saxton, one year, from 
October, 1867, to October, 1868. The eleventh, Elder 
Harper, for six months. June, 1869, "No pastor'' is 
the report to the Association. 

The next pastors were : W. A. Caplinger, two and 
a half years, W. A. Clark, nearly two years, E. S. 
Riley from October, 1875, to 1885 or 1886, then 
brethren Banker, C. J. Pope, Dr. Heagel, W. E. Ran- 
dall, and W. E. Story, the last closing his pastoral 
work in 1899. In 1885 Rev. E ? S. Riley was Moder- 
ator of the Association and Rev. C. J. Pope was Clerk 
in 1887 and in 1888. 

The Northern Indiana Association with which the 
churches of La Porte, Porter, and Lake are connected, 
held its first annual meeting in 1837, extending into 
counties further east than at present. A. division, for 
convenience sake, took place at South Bend in 1845, 
when 1,126 members were reported. Meeting in 1846 
at Valparaiso, 654 only were reported. Of the pastor 
here at this time, a true pioneer minister, the follow- 
ing sketch is inserted : 

Rev. William T. Ely was born in Norway, New 
York, January 20, 1812, studied at Hamilton, was 
married in 1839 to Miss Elizabeth Miller, sister of 
Elder Miller of La Porte, became pastor at Valparaiso 
in 1844. He also went into Lake County once in each 
month, and in 1845 was pastor there of the Cedar 
Lake Baptist Church, baptizing in that year, in the 



210 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



Lake of the Red Cedars, T. H. Ball, Elisabeth H. 
Ball, Mrs. Sarah Farwell, Eli Church, and in Janu- 
ary, 1846, Fanny C. Warriner. His salary was not 
large, and, like Rev. J. C. Brown, the Presbyterian 
pastor, he added something to it by teaching in Val- 
paraiso a "day school.'*' 

He was a very earnest, devoted, faithful preacher 
and pastor. He was a pastor in Michigan, Indiana, 
Illinois, and Minnesota. He went into the last State 
in 1853, where he organized and assisted to organize 
several churches, and there died at Etna, June 16, 
1897, eighty-five years of age. A few yet remain who 
knew him well in the days of his early ministry in 
Indiana. 

In Lake County the pioneer Baptist families settled 
in 1836 and 1837 not far from the Red Cedar Lake. 
They were the large Church and Cutler families, the 
two Warriner families, and the Ball family. 

Their church, taking its name from the lake, was 
organized June 17, 1838, Elder French, of Porter 
County, the minister present. Its pastors were : N. 
Warriner, ordained as its first pastor ; W. T. Bly, A. 
Hastings, Uriah McKay, and Thomas L. Hunt. As 
missionaries and visiting pastors it enjoyed the occa- 
sional services of Elders French, Sawin, Whitehead, 
Brayton, Kennedy, Hitchcock, and N. V. Steadman, 
of Evansville, who in April, 1855, baptized the last 
member received into this church, Henrietta Ball, 
then thirteen years of age. In its life period as a 
church it had nearly one hundred members. It was 
quite a model church. Population changing, the rec- 
ord says, "some being about to remove," this church 
was disbanded January 17, 1856, having existed sev- 
enteen years. Its history is given in "The Lake of the 
Red Cedars." 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 211 

Since the organization of that church in 1838, 
eleven other Baptist churches have been organized 
in Lake County, making twelve in all, and of these, 
two only, one at Hammond organized in 1887, and 
another at Hammond organized in January, 1899, are 
now maintaining church life. 

In the life time of seven of the ten churches not 
now manifesting church life, were baptized one hun- 
dred and seventy-five, and of all these ten or twelve- 
are now left in the county. 

The Hammond church of 1887 reported in 1898 
three hundred and two members. The "Baptist Mes- 
senger," a church paper, under date of January 21, 
1899, says: "A few weeks ago the First Baptist 
church dismissed from its fellowship seventy-six mem- 
bers, who expressed their determination to organize 
a second Baptist church in Hammond. We under- 
stand that such church has about perfected its or- 
ganization, assuming the name Immanuel Baptist 
church. We suppose that members of any society, 
who are dissatisfied with their relationship and asso- 
ciations, have a right to withdraw and make a society 
of their own." 

The recognition of such a right is surely liberal and 
noble. Many have in the past denied it. 

Of the first church at Hammond S. W. Phelps has 
been pastor since 1893. 

In La Porte County the Baptists number about 
five hundred and fifty members ; in Porter three hun- 
dred members ; in Lake, at Hammond, three hun- 
dred; in Starke sixty, and in Pulaski, no church; in 
White about nine hundred ; in Jasper one hundred and 
sixty, and in Newton four hundred. Total member- 
ship about twenty-six hundred. Of the eight county 



212 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

seats, Knox, Winamac, Kentland, Monticello, Crown 
Point, have no Baptist preaching. 

In the Northern Indiana Association, the churches 
north of the Kankakee, with 1,150 members, con- 
tributed in 1898, for their twelve different objects, 
$6,886, or less than six dollars for each member. In 
the Monticello Association, number of members 1,400, 
there was contributed in 1899, $10,456, or seven dol- 
lars for each member. 

The Baptists do not seem to have held their ground 
well north of the Kankakee River. Nineteen churches 
have been organized in La Porte County; at Kings- 
bury, at Rolling Prairie, three in La Porte, three in 
Michigan City, at Door Village, Westville, Mill 
Creek, Wanatah, Pleasant Hill, Clinton Township, 
Macedonia, Salem, Galena Township, Byron, and 
Hudson. Of these four only are now living. 

In Porter County have been organized the Neal 
Baptist Church in 1835 or 1836, the "First Baptist 
Church" in Valparaiso, the Twenty Mile Prairie 
Church, the "Second Baptist Church of Porter 
County," 1850, the Union Center and Willow Creek 
churches. And of these six there is one now living. 

In Lake County churches have been organized 
at the Red Cedar Lake, West Creek, Lowell, Eagle 
Creek, Plum Grove, Hobart, Griffith, Ross, two at 
Crown Point, and two at Hammond. And of these 
the two at Hammond are the living churches now. 

It thus appears that of thirty-seven Baptist churches 
organized in these three counties since 1834 but 
seven maintain an existence as this Nineteenth Cen- 
tury is about to close. It is easy to say that some of 
the thirty should never have been organized ; and 
easy to say that some of them should not have been 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 213 

disbanded ; but who knows ? Only the Omniscient 
One. In the seventy years of white occupancy many 
things have changed. Social centers and church cen- 
ters grew up and changed ; Baptist pioneers gave place 
to other settlers ; pioneer centers ceased altogether to 
be central ; and the German and Swede and Bohemian 
and many other immigrants now are on the localities 
where once the Baptist pioneers and the Methodist 
pioneers, and the Wesleyans and United Brethren met 
for worship. History teaches lessons. The Baptist 
history of Indiana never has been written. Its earlier 
history, in much detail, never will be written. But if, 
in many localities, in our good State of Indiana, Bap- 
tists have not flourished as have some other denomi- 
nations, it has been in part their own fault. 

Of seventy-five towns in the State, having each 
a population from five hundred to twenty-five hun- 
dred, and containing no Baptist Church, sixteen are in 
Xorth-Western Indiana. Of nine counties with no 
Baptist Church Pulaski and Starke were two. And of 
twenty-eight county seats without a Baptist Church 
we have of these only five. 

There may be such a thing as denominational 
pride, there may sometimes be even church rivalry; 
but the historic facts above recorded seem to teach 
that there is no need in every town, or in every county, 
for churches of each large denomination to exist. It is 
not so essential by what denomination the Gospel is 
preached. If in any community, and in every com- 
munity, there is one Evangelical Church, then there 
the Gospel can go forth on its mission to the hearts of 
the people; and there may be found those who are 
among the choice number called "the light of the 
world" and "the salt of the earth." 



214 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Connected with most of the Baptist churches are 
Young People's Societies or Unions, the letters rep- 
resenting which are, B. Y. P. U. 

North of the Kankakee River these are (1899) the 
figures including active and associate members : At 
Kingsbury 35, at Michigan City 37, at Valparaiso 40, 
at Hammond 62, at La Porte 75 ; total 249. South of 
the Kankakee, some reports for 1899, some for 1898, 
Seniors and Juniors, at Burnettsville 90, at Beaver 
City 35, at Goodland 124, at Milroy 71, at Monon 108, 
at Rensselaer 40, at Mount Ayr 28, at Sitka 67, at Wol- 
cott 61 ; total 563. Grand total 812. 

8. The Lutherans. 

In La Porte County of this large and wealthy body 
of Protestant Christians there are two varieties, the 
churches being connected with two different synods. 

At Michigan City are two churches belonging to 
the Ohio Synod. The buildings are nearly opposite 
each other, both large, massive looking brick struc- 
tures, and each having a church school attached. 

1. St. Paul's Church, families 500. 

2. St. John's Church, families 475. 

The other Lutheran churches in La Porte County 
are the following, the figures attached denoting the 
entire membership of all the families connected with 
each church, called the number of souls, the families 
averaging about six members each : 

La Porte, George Link, pastor, 2,070; Wanatah, 
F. Heickhoff, pastor, 500; Tracy, 197; Hanna, 153; 
A. Neuendorf, pastor of both; Otis, M. C. Brade, 361. 
Also in La Porte a Swedish Lutheran. 

In Porter County. Valparaiso, A. Rehwaldt, 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 215 

640; Kouts, A. Baumann, 325 ; Chesterton, 135. A 
Swedish Lutheran at Baillytown. 

In Starke County : Xorth Judson, W. Roesener, 
405 ; San Pierre, probably 200; Winona, 185. 

In Pulaski County : YVinamac, 65 ; Denham, 290 ; 
Medaryville, A. Baumann, 60. 

In White County : Reynolds, J. Lindhorst, 393. 

In Jasper County: Fair Oaks, G. Bauer, pastor, 
125; Kniman, same pastor, 83; Wheatfield, perhaps 
60. 

In Xewton County: Goodland, G. Bauer, 155; at 
Morocco, a congregation, 36. 

There are also preaching places, with small con- 
gregations, number of members not ascertained, at 
McCool in Porter County; at Westville in La Porte, 
and at Hamlet in Starke County. 

In Lake County are the following, with date of 
building attached : 

1. Trinity Church at Crown Point, first building, 
frame. 1869; second, large brick building, 1886. Pas- 
tor from 1 87 1 to 1890, Rev. G. Heintz. Since 1890, 
Rev. August Schuelke. Members, 594. 

2. St. Paul's at Deer Creek, 1886. Pastor, Rev. 
G. Heintz, 80. 

3. Trinity Church at Hobart, 1874, German Luth- 
eran. Pastor, Rev. E. R. Schuelke. Members, 649. 

4. Swedish Lutheran at Hobart, 1873. 

5. St. John's Church at Tolleston, 1869. Pastor, 
Rev- A. Rump. 484. 

6. Swedish Lutheran at Miller's Station, 189. 

7. Church at Hammond, South Side, 1883 ; second 
building, brick, 1889. Rev. W. Dau, 1,257. 

8. Church at Hammond, Xorth Side, 1889. Rev. 
W. Brauer, 496. 



216 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

9. Church at Whiting, Rev. P. Wille, 235. Or- 
chard Grove congregation, 56. 

9. "Reformed." 

The churches of this variety of German Protestants 
are sometimes called "Evangelical," but are more 
commonly, by their American neighbors, considered 
as Lutherans. Holding to a great extent the doctrines 
taught by Luther, on some points of doctrine they fol- 
low the teachings of Calvin and Zwinglius. There 
are four churches of this variety in Lake County. 
Three are German and one is Hollander. 

1. Zion's Church, in Hanover Township, north 
of Brunswick, established by Rev. Peter Lehman in 
1857, with twenty-six members. A church building 
was soon erected and a church school commenced. 
Present membership . 

2. Reformed Church near the southeast corner of 
Center Township, building erected in 1883. Members 



3. Reformed or Evangelical in Hammond. 

4. Hollander Church in North Township near 
Lansing on the Highland road. Hollander settle- 
ment commenced on the Calumet bottom lands and 
along the Highland sand ridge in 1855. Church 
building erected about 1876. Entire membership 
about 300. There is also a Hollander Reformed 
Church at De Motte, in Jasper. 

10. "Christians." 

Some years ago Dr. T. J. Conant, one of the Bible 
Union revisers, mentioned a "large and wealthy com- 
munity calling themselves 'Disciples of Christ/ the 
followers of Alexander Campbell." 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 21? 

The Journal and Messenger, of Cincinnati, Octo- 
ber 5, 1899, mentions the Independents of Eng- 
land, the Congregationalists and the Baptists of 
America, and adds to these three varieties of Chris- 
tians "Disciples," numbering, says the editor, hardly 
less than a million in all. 

Why did that editor put quotation marks around 
Disciples ? 

In a table of seventeen denominations, includ- 
ing Jews and Mormons, published in January, 1900, 
by the "Independent," Christians are placed at 112,- 
414, and Disciples at 1,118,396. Those called Dis- 
ciples must be the body calling themselves Christians 
in Indiana, and in order to discriminate between 
Christians and Disciples as given by the "Inde- 
pendent," and between Christians as denoting those 
believing in Christ and Christians as denoting one 
variety of believers in Christ, quotation marks are, in 
this book, placed around "Christians." 

In giving the history of Pleasant Township, which 
General Packard says was one of the most attractive 
parts of La Porte County, adding: "Its rich and 
flower clad prairies, its groves of noble forest trees, its 
numerous small lakes and flowing streams, combined 
to form a spot of unsurpassed beauty ;" he makes this 
statement: "The earliest preachers in the township 
were Elder St. Claire, Campbellite; Elder Spalding, 
Baptist ; and Rev. Geo. M. Boyd, Methodist." This 
sentence shows the titles in early times applied to min- 
isters and the names given to three varieties of Chris- 
tians. All readers will thus understand that by "Chris- 
tians" Disciples, so called, are meant. This is a large 
and growing body of Christians. 

So far as ascertained, they have three churches in 



218 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Lake County, at Lowell, in West Creek Township, 
and at Hammond. The Lowell church was organized 
south of Lowell in 184 1, constituent members Simeon 
Beadle and his wife Sarah Beadle, William Wells and 
his wife Sarah Wells, Thomas Childers and his wife 
Sarah Childers, and J. L. Worley. In 1869 the mem- 
bers built a brick church in Lowell costing about four 
thousand dollars, of which sum one of the members, 
Henry Dickinson, gave twelve hundred dollars. 

The church at Hammond was organized in Decem- 
ber, 1888, by Rev. E. B. Cross. A comfortable build- 
ing was soon secured, and a pastor resides in the city. 
The West Creek Church, a country church, was or- 
ganized some years ago, and a good building erected, 
through the efforts of the Worley and Pinkerton fam- 
ilies and some others who were members at Lowell. 
The location is a pleasant one. 

In Porter County there are of these congregations 
four. In Valparaiso a church was organized with 
eight members, in 1847, by Rev. Peter T. Russell. 
In 1874 a large brick church edifice was erected and 
the congregation numbers more than a thousand 
members. 

In Hebron a church was organized in January, 
1870, with twenty-six members. A house was built 
in 1878 costing eleven hundred dollars. The first pas- 
tor was Lemuel Shortridge. Present membership has 
not been ascertained. 

It is somewhat remarkable that the mother of Elder 
Shortridge, Mrs. Esther C. Shortridge, born in Octo- 
ber, 1804, is still living, having quite good use of her 
senses and faculties, now almost ninety-six years of 
age. She has been a resident for a, number of years 
with her daughter in the city of Hammond, and is a 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 219 

noble illustration of what an aged Christian woman 
may be. Few are permitted to reach her age. 

A third and a flourishing church is at Boone 
Grove, and the fourth is at Kouts. 

In La Porte County there are churches at La 
Porte, organized in 1837 "by means of the efforts of 
Judge William Andrew and Dr. Jacob P. Andrew. 
Their labors were earnest, unremitting, and success- 
ful. '' This church has had both deacons and deacon- 
esses. The latter at one time were Mrs. W. H. Cal- 
kins, Mrs. Angeline C. Wagner, and Mrs. T. J. Fos- 
ter. The elders at that time were S. K. Pottinger and 
Isaac N. Whitehead. To have in a church elders and 
deacons and deaconesses seems like a return to Apos- 
tolic times. 

In 1848 a church was organized at Westville by 
John Martin dale. 

About 1850 one was formed in Galena Township, 
"re-organized in 1872 by Elder Joseph Wickard." 

In 1854 a church was established at Rolling Prairie 
which has been very flourishing, numbering in 1894 
one hundred and sixty members. 

About 1874 a church was organized at Wanatah, 
making five for La Porte County. Membership in the 
county in 1876, about five hundred. Other churches 
have been added to these, making seven for La Porte 
County, the church at Michigan City and one at 
Union Mills. 

In Starke County, at Knox, a church was organ- 
ized some years ago and a good building erected. 

In Pulaski County are churches at Winamac, at 
Star City, and at Francesville. 

In White County there are churches at Monti- 
cello, Reynolds, Wolcott, and Headlee. 



220 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

In Jasper County are churches at Rensselaer, 
Wheatfield, Fair Oaks, and at Goodhope. 

In Newton County, churches are at Kentland, 
Remington, Morocco, and Brook. 

Note. For some reason or, perhaps, for no rea- 
son, it has been quite impracticable to obtain infor- 
mation, beyond my personal knowledge, in regard to 
the churches of this denomination. The pastor at 
Hammond, Rev. H. E. Luck, gave some valuable aid. 

T. H. B. 






CHAPTER XV. 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 

ii. Protestant Episcopal. 

1. In 1836 was organized the Trinity Church at 
Michigan City, the Rev. D. V. M. Johnson first pas- 
tor. For the first 40 years, up to 1876, the succeeding 
rectors and pastors were, with perhaps some others, 
G. B. Engle, Henry SafTord, C. A. Bruce, W. H. Stay, 
E. P. Wright, R. L. Ganter, T. L. Bellam, J. F. Wink- 
ley, Dr. Reeves, R. Brass, and S. S. French.* Mem- 
bership in 1876 sixty. Present membership . 

2. St. Paul's Church in Ca Porte was organized 
July 25, 1839. For thirty-seven years, commencing in 
1840, the rectors of this church were, Solon W. Man- 
ney, H. W. Roberts, F. R. Half, W. E. Franklin, A. 
Gregory, A. E. Bishop, J. H. Lee, F. M. Gregg, G. 
J. Magill and C. T. Coer. The rectorship of the Rev. 
W. E. Franklin was terminated by his death. It is 
said of him that in life he was beloved by his parish- 
ioners and his death was deeply lamented. Member- 
ship in 1876 about one hundred and fifty. 

3. The Episcopal Church at Hammond is much 
younger than the two in La Porte County. Meetings 
had been held in Crown Point and for a time there was 
an organization kept up, a few church members then 
residing in the town who were visited occasionally by 



* General Packard. 



222 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

the bishop. This was about twenty-five years ago. 
Meetings were held, first in Miss Knight's school 
house, and after 1881 in the Baptist Church on Main 
street. The few members removed, and as Ham- 
mond grew, in 1890, an interest having started there, 
a church building was erected and Rev. R. C. Wall 
became the resident pastor. The church is neat and 
nice; the congregation is not large, but composed of 
good citizens; the Sunday school is interesting. The 
following notice of a memorable occasion is from 
the report to the Old Settlers' Association in 1896: 
"On Sunday evening, November 3, 1895, was held in 
the Episcopal Church at Hammond the first Armenian 
service ever held in a church building in this county, 
conducted by Armenians, about fifty in number, and 
in the Armenian language. The service was in com- 
memoration of the cruelties, the suffering and death 
of so many Armenian Christians, inflicted by the 
brutal Turks. There were prayers, responsive read- 
ings of Scripture, the singing of psalms and hymns, 
and the recitation of the Nicere creed, and an address. 
While the tunes, so thoroughly Oriental had a strange 
sound in western ears, the whole service is said to 
have been 'singularly interesting.' " 

12. Roman Catholics. 

In La Porte County there are : In La Porte two 
churches, St. Joseph's, which is German, and St. 
Peter's, which is Irish. The latter was organized soon 
after the city was first settled, and its congregation is 
large. St. Joseph's Church was organized in 1858 and 
a large brick building for the congregation was in a 
year or two erected, one of the substantial buildings 
of the city, the steeple being one hundred and thirty- 
five feet in height, and two. chime bells, weighing one 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 223 

thousand pounds each, soon were swinging in the 
church tower. In the centennial year of the country 
this church numbered one hundred and twenty-five 
German with some Polish families. 

In Michigan City are also two, one of which is 
called St. Mary's, and one is Polish Catholic. Pres- 
ent number of families about six hundred. As the 
families are large, there are estimated to be "3500 
people." 

At Otis is a Polander Roman Catholic Church; 
this building erected in 1872. Membership, . 

At Wanatah is one, and one some two miles from 
La Crosse. In all seven. Membership about 900 fam- 
ilies. 

In Starke County are two churches, one at North 
Judson and one at San Pierre. 

In Pulaski are churches at Winamac, Francesville, 
Medaryville, Monterey. 

In White are churches at Reynolds, and probably 
other towns. 

In Jasper churches are at Rensselaer, Wheatfield, 
and Remington. 

In Xewton County there is a church at Kentland 
and one at Goodland. 

. In Porter County, the early Roman Catholic his- 
tory, as given by the Rev. Robert Beer in "Porter 
and Lake/' is not flattering to the members nor to 
some of the pastors, especially not to one who was, 
he says, "a man of great learning, but totally unfit to 
be a pastor." After him came a young man, Rev. 
M. O'Reilly, with whose advent, "the organized con- 
gregation of Saint Paul's properly begins." "He found 
the affairs of the Catholic Church in the worst state 
possible, the church, poor as it was, closed under an 



224 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

injunction; law suits pending on every hand; debts 
unlimited to be paid; a bitter division of sentiment 
amongst the members of the congregation; no pas- 
toral residence ; no school for the youth." (Page 145 
of Porter and Lake.) It was now January, 1863. The 
new, young, resolute, talented pastor began work. 
He secured possession of the church building, repaired 
it, bought land, started the St. Paul's School, secured 
as teachers "the Sisters of Providence," erected build- 
ings, the Gothic Church building "153 feet long" and 
' with a steeple 198 feet rrgh," and school buildings, 
obtained "a large parish bell, and a very fine pipe 
organ," secured harmony in his congregation, and in 
the first twenty years of his ministry "baptized about 
1700 persons in his. congregation." Says Rev. R. 
Beer: "The congregation is composed of several na- 
tionalities — Irish, Americans, German, French, Eng- 
lish, and Polanders. All live in harmony, and their 
children are educated together in St. Paul's schools." 

The other churches of Porter County are at Kouts 
and at Chesterton. The entire number of families in 
Porter County has not been obtained. 

In Lake County are the following churches : 

1. Church of St. John the^ Evangelist, at St. Johns. 
Brick building, 1856. First Chapel, 1843. 

2. Church of St. Joseph at Dyer. Large building, 
1867. 

3. Church of St. Michael at Schererville, 1874. 

4. Church of St. Anthony at Klaasville, 1861. 

5. Church of St. Martin at Hanover Center, 1869. 

6. Church of St. Edward at Lowell. First build- 
ing, 1877. Second, October, 1897. 

7. Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. First 
building, 1867. Second, large brick building, spire 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 225 



one hundred and forty-one feet in height, 1890 and 
1 89 1, at Crown Point. 

8. Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul 
at Turkey Creek. First building, logs, in 1852. Sec- 
ond, of Joliet stone, large, 1864. 

9. Church of St. Bridget at Hobart, . 

10. Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, at Lake Sta- 
tion, 1861. 

11. Church of St. Joseph at Hammond. First 
building, 1879. Second, large, two-story brick build- 
ing, for church and school, 1889. 

12. Church of St. Mary at East Chicago, conse- 
crated October 26, 1890. 

13. St. Michael's Polish Catholic at East Chicago. 

14. Church of the Sacred Heart at Whiting. 

15. All Saints' Church at Hammond, January 19, 



16. Polander Catholic Church at Hammond. 

Whole number of Roman Catholic families in Lake 
County, about one thousand. 

13. Unitarians. 

There is of this body of people one church or con- 
gregation at Hobart, in Lake County, and one in the 
city of La Porte. The one at Hobart was organized, 
with forty-eight members, August 23, 1874. For a 
time meetings were held in a hall, but they soon pro- 
ceeded to erect a church building which was dedi- 
cated January 2y, 1876, "Rev. Robert Collier officiat- 
ing." This church keeps up its social and church life, 
has a Sunday school of about a hundred members, 
and a free circulating library of between seven and 
eight hundred volumes. The school library contains 
three hundred or more volumes, making in all a 
thousand volumes. Present membership, . 



223 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

The Unitarian congregation at La Porte was in 
part organized June 22, 1875, when Rev. Dr. Robert 
Collyer of Chicago visited La Porte and preached 
"with a view to the formation of a" Unitarian church. 
March 7, 1876, the Rev. Enoch Powell became pastor. 
For a time regular services were held "at the Court 
House," and a Sabbath school was organized. 

Afterward a church building was secured, where 
the services were held. The congregation is not large. 

14. Second Adventists. 

This term by no means denotes simply those who 
believe in the return again to this world of Jesus of 
Nazareth, who at his first advent came as the Babe 
of Bethlehem; for all evangelical Christians believe 
that at some time and for some great purposes he will 
return. Nor yet does the term denote those who be- 
lieve that the return of the Saviour to this world will 
be before what is called by many the Millennial Era, 
"the Times of Restitution of all things." But it in- 
cludes, rather, those who, believing in such a return, 
believe also in the ceasing of conscious existence at 
death, or in the non-immortality of the human soul ; 
and are therefore called sometimes "Soul-Sleepers." 
Some of these observe Saturday as their Sabbath, and 
so are called "Seventh-Day Adventists." Of this va- 
riety of Christians have been found five congrega- 
tions in these counties. 

In La Porte County, at Union Mills, there is one 
congregation with a good church building; in Jasper 
County, at Rensselaer, there is also one, called The 
Church of God, having a large church building and 
congregation and Sabbath school; there is at Star 
City, in Pulaski County, one congregation ; and in 
White County one in the country not far from the 
town of Reynolds. 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 227 

There is also a congregation with no church build- 
ing at Knox in Starke County. 

15. Quakers, or Friends. 

Of those Christians bearing the above name, among 
whom, generations ago, William Penn was so noted, 
and who took such a large and noble part in the set- 
tlement of Pennslyvania, few have retained homes in 
any of these counties. Some came from New Jersey 
and from the Wabash in early years. One church 
building and one church organization of their form of 
faith and practice is found existing here now. That 
one is in the city of La Porte. The house is a plain 
looking brick building, erected a number of years 
ago. Membership not large. 

16. "New Church." 

Of those called Swedenborg'ians or members of 
the New Jerusalem Church, also called New Church, 
there is one organization, and that also' is in the city 
of La Porte. This church or Society was organized 
June 14, 1859, although there had been the preaching 
of this faith in La Porte since 1850 by the Rev. Henry 
Weller. He became the first pastor and continued, 
until his death in June, 1868, to be pastor of this 
church. The second was Rev. W. M. Fernald, and the 
third Rev. Cyrus Scammon. Some of the wealthy, of 
the most cultivated, and of the most noted citizens of 
La Porte have had membership in this church. But 
it is evidently not here a growing faith. In the entire 
country are now about five thousand members. A 
few have resided in Lake County, but no organization 
has been formed. 

17. Free Methodists. 

In Starke County there are two churches of this 
denomination, one at Knox and one at Toto, each 



228 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



having good church buildings. Each of these churches 
also has a good Sunday school and some excellent 
members. Membership, seventy. 

In Jasper County, at Dunville and at De Motte are 
Free Methodist congregations. 

In La Porte County at Springville is a church 
building and a prosperous congregation and Sunday 
school; also one at a country locality called Bunker 
Hill. Members in the county sixty. 

The Free Methodist Church at Crown Point owes 
its existence to a religous movement which forms a 
singular chapter in the religous history of Lake and 
Porter counties. A brief notice of that movement 
seems desirable. 

In the summer of 1876 there came to Ross a num- 
ber of evangelists, English by birth and training, re- 
sembling in their teachings English non-Episcopal 
Methodists, but claiming no denominational connec- 
tion. They came to the village of Ross from Chicago, 
where one of them was understood to carry on the 
business of a butcher. One of them, it was said, had 
been brought up a Baptist. They were in number 
six, Messrs. Hanmer, Andrews, Martin, Flues, 
Cooke, and among them was one woman, Mrs. Cooke, 
but not the wife of this evangelist Cooke. Others 
united with them. These held a series of meetings at 
Ross, and some singular conversions took place. They 
came to Merrillville and held meetings for many even- 
ings in the old Wiggins and Indian village grove. 
Many there professed conversion. In the early winter 
of 1876 they reached Crown Point. A large ware- 
house was fitted up and called a tabernacle, and there 
daily meetings were held. But t'he room could not 
be made comfortable for the large numbers that at- 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 229 

tended, and soon the use of Cheshire Hall, now Music 
Hall, in the center of town, was secured ; and in that 
hall meetings were held day after day, night after 
night, not only for weeks but for months, making the 
most singular series of meetings connected with Lake 
County history. The order of exercises need not here 
be detailed. A record can be found in Lake County, 
1884, page 216. The winter was quite cold, the sleigh- 
ing was usually good, and from the country those who 
resided many miles distant would come each night, 
devoting their time during that winter largely to re- 
ligious interests. All classes of citizens attended. The 
meetings would not fully close often until eleven 
o'clock at night. The record is that for some three 
months these meetings thus continued at Crown 
Point. Some strange influence seemed to bring to- 
gether and to hold the people. Quite a large number 
professed conversion, and many were afterwards bap- 
tized. The baptisms were usually immersions, the ad- 
ministrator evangelist Martin. 

Similar meetings, but not of so long continuance, 
were held at Lowell and Hobart in Lake County, and 
at Blachley's Corners and at Hebron in Porter 
County. Although at first and through the series of 
meetings disavowing any denominational plans or ef- 
forts, it was found by the leaders, when the results of 
the meetings appeared in the several congregations 
that were naturally formed, that something of church 
work must be undertaken. And so they organized 
churches in 1877 at Crown Point, at Ross; at Ho- 
bart, probably the same year ; at the Handley school- 
house and at Hebron, having at Hebron eighty mem- 
bers. 

The name proposed for each was, the Union Mis- 



230 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

sion Church. Some church building's were erected. 
A general superintendent or presiding officer was ap- 
pointed, and for a few years systematic work was car- 
ried on. But the leaders separated. One became a 
Congregationalist, one an Epsicopal Methodist; one 
a Free Methodist, and the new denomination of Band 
Mission churches was suffered to go down. The 
"Union Mission Church" at Crown Point became 
Free Methodist in 1881. As a result of that Band 
movement about one hundred and fifty were baptized 
in Lake County, quite a number in Porter, and four 
church buildings were erected, one at Ross, one at 
Hobart, one at Hebron, these at length becoming in 
name Congregational, and the one at Crown Point 
which became Free Methodist. 

As early as 1882 the church, which had been or- 
ganized with eighty members and which in 1878 had 
erected a building costing two thousand dollars, had 
lost its visibility, and in its place was organized in 
April of that year, a Congregational church of forty 
members. This church maintained an existence for 
some little time, but that has also disappeared and the 
two thousand dollar church building is now tenant- 
less. At Ross, where the Band movement com- 
menced, and where a good brick building was erected, 
the congregation is in part, denominationally, Con- 
gregational and in part Free Methodist. 

At Hobart the Band Church is fully Congrega- 
tional. 

18. United Brethren. 

The Christians that bear this noble name, kindred 
they would seem to be to the noted Moravians, are 
not very numerous in these counties. In Starke 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 231 

County are three United Brethren churches, at Round 
Lake one, at North Judson and at Grovertown. 

In Newton County, at Morocco, there is a strong, 
prosperous congregation. There the "Brethren" built 
in 1898 a brick church, a more than ordinarily excel- 
lent house for any of our towns. Years ago there 
were individuals and congregations of this denomina- 
tion in other counties, but no other church organiza- 
tion, besides these four, seems to be in existence in 
these counties now. Professor Jameson, in his Dic- 
tionary says of the "United Brethren in Christ," as a 
body, "Its membership lies principally in rural dis- 
tricts and numbered in 1890, 225,000." 

19. The Believers. 

In 1878 there came to Crown Point a preacher who 
not long before left Scotland, where he had for sev- 
eral years been holding religious meetings in hamlets 
and villages and forming congregations of a somewhat 
new variety. He held some meetings in the Presby- 
terian Church. In 1879 he came again with a tent, 
and for a number of days and evenings held tent meet- 
ings on Sherman Street. As a result of these meet- 
ings a congregation was gathered from the then lately 
formed "Band" congregation, and from the Metho- 
dist, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches. This con- 
gregation, not large in number, and having lost some 
of the original members, has been holding regular 
meetings ever since. 

It is not needful to endeavor to give here their pe- 
culiar views, any further than to place on record this 
statement, that they endeavor "to copy the simplicity 
of primitive Christianity." 

A congregation of the same kind was some years 
later formed at Lowell, and these of late have held 



232 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

their meetings in the unoccupied Baptist church build- 
ing. Both of these congregations maintain Sunday- 
schools. 

A third congregation was formed in Valparaiso 
about the same time that the one was formed in 
Crown Point. 

These are not called churches, yet they seem to 
have some kind of fellowship with others of the same 
variety of Christians in Illinois, and some of them 
unite in an annual meeting in Chicago each fall or 
early winter. Their historic record is that they have 
proved to be very quiet, peaceful, pious, useful citi- 
zens. These three congregations number about . 

20. The German Evangelicals. 

In 1855 an organization of Christian workers called 
The Evangelical Association, commenced missionary 
work in Hanover Township of Lake County. A 
church was organized and a building erected; but 
church life soon ceased. 

In 1867 mission work was commenced by Rev. L. 
Willman at Crown Point. In 1874 a church was or- 
ganized and a building erected. A congregation was 
gathered east of Crown Point at Deer Creek. Since 
1856 about thirty different missionary and resident 
pastors have labored in Lake County, faithful and 
diligent workers all, but the membership has not in- 
creased for the last sixteen years, continuing to be 
about forty. • ' ! 

Again and again, in the records of this chapter, the 
same lesson appears : that there seems to be no need 
in every place or in every county for every variety of 
Christians to be represented. There are too many 
small interests. There is not enough hearty good will 
and fellowship among the different companies of the 



RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 233 



Christian army, to enable them to march on, as some 
of them seem confidently to expect, to the conquest 
of the world. 

Not counted in with any of the twenty varieties of 
Christian denominations that have been named, not 
numbered with these thousands, yet helping to form 
with these a little part of the great Church Militant, is 
a small congregation at Dyer in Lake County, consti- 
tuting a Protestant Union Church. This church was 
organized September 20, 1891. A good house of wor- 
ship was soon built and well furnished, and for now 
nearly nine years an interesting Sunday school has 
been kept up and Protestant worship has been main- 
tained. For several months a student from a Metho- 
dist seminary at Chicago will be the "supply" for the 
pulpit, and then for several months a student from 
a Baptist seminary. But the church is Union, those 
who had been brought up Lutheran or Reformed, or 
Methodist, or Congregationalist, or Episcopal, or 
Baptist, or Universalist, all agreeing to worship and 
work together as Protestant Christians. The town of 
Dyer is almost entirely Roman Catholic, and they 
must as Protestants be a peaceful and compact body. 

There are in Lake County two other undenomina- 
tional church buildings, but no other Union organiza- 
tion, and at Kouts in Porter County there is an unde- 
nominational church house. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND MISSIONARIES. 

To a large extent the men and women who settled 
this region came from centers of cultivation and in- 
telligence in older states., and brought with them the 
results of their early training. There were some fam- 
ilies who had lived on frontiers before, and had en- 
joyed few advantages for education and improvement ; 
but they were not the founders of institutions here. 

It was but natural that those men and women with 
firm religious principle and with their strength of 
character, realizing almost intuitively that they were 
here to lay foundations for coming generations, should 
soon commence studying and teaching the Scriptures, 
and should have soon in active development what are 
called Sunday schools. They had brought with them 
their Bibles and their hymn books, and although the 
world was not sixty-five and seventy years aeo as 
it is now, human nature was the same, the deep human 
needs were the same, and no book was so well adapted 
as was the Bible to meet these needs in the wilderness. 
The religious history and the beginning of church life 
have been given, so far as these records are concerned, 
and it remains now to look over some of the school 
records of sixty or more years. But the material for 
minute details has not been generally preserved, and a 
general survey of the beginnings in most of these 
counties is all that can be attempted here to be given. 
As prayer meetings were held, first in La Porte 



SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND MISSIONARIES. 235 

County as the-first that was really settled, and then in 
White, and in a few years in Jasper and Pulaski, and 
in Porter and Lake, so in these counties the children 
were invited to meet on Sundays in the log school 
houses, and to bring their Testaments, and to spend 
an hour or more — there was not so much hurry then 
as now — in reading and in reciting verses learned at 
home, and in singing some of the good, old church 
hymns, and in prayer. Those who have searched early 
records and conversed with the first settlers do not 
seem to have secured the dates of many schools or 
the names of the first teachers. 

Incidentally, in General Packard's account of La 
Porte, it is mentioned that a Sabbath school was there 
organized in 1837, "in which A. and J. B. Fravel took 
a deep interest." And it is further mentioned, Rev. 
G. M. Boyd is the narrator now, that there was then 
no barber in La Porte and so J. B. Fravel cut the 
hair of the men, charging each man a dime, and ap- 
propriated the money to purchase a Sunday-school 
library. Also it is stated that on the Fourth of July 
of that year, "the little school was out in patriotic 
procession, "and that Daniel Webster, then in La 
Porte, "standing in his carriage addressing the citi- 
zens," said of the children as they came in sight, 
"There, fellow citizens, is the hope of our country." 
Perhaps this is the record of the first school and first 
library and first procession of Sunday-school children 
in this region. It may be that among the Presbyte- 
rians on Rolling Prairie there was an earlier school. 
Let him, who can so do, produce the record. 

In 1843 R- ev - G. M. Boyd says, "As the church in- 
creased, the interest in the Sunday-school cause in- 
creased. The returns show an aggregate of three 



236 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

hundred and five scholars in the county.". The schools 
continued to increase, and in 1876 there were reported 
fifteen Methodist schools and one thousand four hun- 
dred and eighty-two scholars. 

Other denominations were not remiss in estab- 
lishing and carrying on schools. The county of La 
Porte for sixty-three years has a good, but largely un- 
written, Sunday-school record. 

In Porter County, the first record of a Sunday 
school found, is in the history of "Porter and Lake," 
where it is stated that in 1838 or 1839 a school was 
organized by Benson Harris and Ira G. Harris, (who 
were sons of Elder Harris, a Baptist minister), and 
George Bronson. This school was near the present 
town of Wheeler. It is further stated that this school 
soon had an average attendance of eighty members 
and that sometimes more than one hundred were 
present. Some of the statements in regard to this 
school are such as to cast a doubt upon the accuracy 
of the record. A year or two later in date would 
probably be more accurate. The next record, and 
this comes from the pen of Rev. R. Beer, 'is of a 
Union school of eighteen pupils, organized by Mrs. 
Brown and Hugh A. Brown, wife and brother of Rev. 
J. C. Brown, in the fall of 1840 or in the winter. This 
was in what became the city of Valparaiso, and this 
school of eighteen members is said to have included 
"every child of suitable age in the neighborhood." It 
was held in the court house until the spring of 1841. 

The children increased in number and school after 
school followed this one in various parts of the county. 

The same course of events took place south of the 
Kankakee River. Some one started a pioneer Sun- 
day school, and year by year other schools were added 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND MISSIONARIES. 237 

to the number; but the names of those first earnest 
men and women are not at hand to be placed upon 
this page. 

White and Jasper are the leading Sunday-school 
counties now, so far as the number of schools is con- 
sidered, and it is a matter for regret that their earliest 
Sunday-school history cannot be given here. There 
may be yet living those who know it, or there may 
be some who have access to it. Next in the number 
of schools to Jasper is La Porte, and then Pulaski and 
Lake, which are in number the same. Whatever may 
have been its early history, Pulaski is a good Sunday- 
school county now. And Starke and Newton, with 
later beginnings, have worked nobly up. In Starke, 
in that part of the county where is now North Jud- 
son, the first school was organized in 1866, a Union 
school, William Palmore, Superintendent. Succeed- 
ing superintendents were Dr. Quick, and brethren 
Strong, Lightcap, and Jones. Another Union school, 
W. Palmore, Superintendent, was also organized in 
1866, about four miles west of North Judson. This 
must have been about the beginning of school workj 
in Starke. In the same year the United Brethren or- 
ganized in North Judson with seven members, and 
about ten years later, an organization having been 
previously effected, the Methodists erected a church 
building in North Judson. In 1884 the "Brethren" 
also built a church, and then the Union school was 
divided, and two denominational schools formed, one 
meeting in the morning, the other in the afternoon, 
some of the children attending both schools. 

In 1886 twenty schools were found in Starke, as 
reported in "Our Banner," a Sunday-school paper, 
called more fully North-Western Indiana Sunday 



238 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

School Banner, published in. 1886 in the interest of the 
"226. District," which included then as now the coun- 
ties of Lake, Porter, La Porte, and Starke. Probably 
the oldest Superintendent in Starke County, that is, 
the one longest in office, is W. Lightcap of North Jud- 
son. He was in office in 1886 and it is understood 
that he is Superintendent of the United Brethren 
school still. He is a nephew of the earlier one of the 
same name. 

Lake County has its Sunday school history for fifty 
years, from about 1840 to 1890, in a volume of two 
hundred pages, published in 1891, called "The Sunday 
Schools of Lake." In that work it is stated: 
"Wednesday, August 27, 1890, the 25th anniversary 
of the Lake County Sunday-school Convention was 
observed, as also the 50th anniversary of Sunday- 
school work in Lake County. To the observance of 
this double anniversary this memorial volume owes 
its existence." As in that volume the Sunday-school 
history of Lake County is so fully given, but little need 
be given here ; only such statements seem needful here 
as will give some general idea of Lake County Sun- 
day schools in connection with the schools in the 
other counties. 

The first schools in the county were commenced 
about 1840 and some of them have been kept up 
through all these sixty years, while to most of the 
earlier schools changes came, and year after year new 
ones were opened. 

The Lake County Sunday School Convention was 
organized at Crown Point in 1865. It held its "First 
Anniversary" in 1866, and its twenty-fifth in 1890; 
while the State Convention, organized the same year, 
in 1865, counted its twenty-fifth annual meeting in 



SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND MISSIONARIES. 239 

1889. As in the year of this writing (1899) the "35th 
Annual State Convention" was held at Columbus, the 
State organization would seem to be one year older 
than the Lake County organization, which could call 
this only its 34th annual meeting. The difference of a 
year in numbering is only a different method of count- 
ing. Whether a child born in 1865 would be twenty- 
five years old in 1889 or in 1890 is not a hard question 
to settle; but of course an organization may call the 
day of its organization its first annual meeting, if it so 
chooses. It does not make it one year old on that 
day. 

The Lake County organization, claiming to be as 
old in years as the State organization, held its second 
anniversary in 1867. Two days were devoted to the 
exercises. On the first day was held a teachers' con- 
vention. There were present by invitation, from Chi- 
cago, Rev. O. Adams, brother M. W. Smith, a de- 
voted infant class teacher, and Rev. N. D. William- 
son. Questions were investigated, How can the 
churches be more effectually enlisted in the Sabbath 
school work? What are the duties of superintend- 
ents and teachers? An address was given by Rev. O. 
Adams on "The Art of Teaching," the subject of 
"Teachers' Meetings" was taken up, and written 
questions were answered by brother Williamson. 

In the evening an address was given by Rev. N. 
D. Williamson on "Claims of the Sabbath School on 
the Whole Community." 

The next day, which was Wednesday, August 21, 
1867, most of the schools of. the county met at the 
Fair Ground. Addresses to the children were de- 
livered by brothers Williamson and Smith. Rev. Mr. 
Clarke, of La Porte, spoke on "the best means of 



240 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

reaching the destitution of the county," the Secre- 
tary reported the schools of the county, and seven 
resolutions were presented by Judge Turner, of Crown 
Point, and adopted. Also two were offered by Rev. 
T. C. Stringer, Methodist pastor at Crown Point. As 
showing what the county organization proposed to 
do, the fifth of Judge Turner's resolutions is here 
quoted : "That the work of the Lake County Sun- 
day School Union is, the establishment in every 
school district in the county, of a Sabbath school, for 
winter as well as summer, furnished with blackboards 
and all suitable requisites." 

The sixth resolution had reference to township or- 
ganizations, and the seventh to sending out a Sunday- 
school missionary. In adopting these resolutions, and 
in undertaking this work, it is evident that the Sun- 
day-school workers of Lake County had, as early as 
1867, some fair ideas in regard to Sunday-school work. 

The presidents of the convention for twenty-five 
years were Judge Hervey Ball, who lived to be about 
seventy-five years of age, Rev. H. Wason, who lived 
more than eighty-three years, Rev. R. B. Young, 
seventy-five years of age, Rev. Dr. Fleming, age at 
death unknown, Judge. David Turner, seventy-three 
years of age, Hugh Boyd, of South East Grove, still 
living, between eighty and ninety years of age, J. L. 
Worley of Lowell, still living, seventy-nine years of 
age, A. A. Winslow, now American Consul in Bel- 
gium, and Cyrus F. Dickinson, of Lowell. First Sec- 
retary, Rev. J. L. Lower; second, Rev. T. H. Ball, 
from 1866 to 1877; third, Professor O. J. Andrews; 
fourth, Rev. T. H. Ball, from 1879 to l8 9°; in a11 
twenty-two years. 

Besides the regular convention meetings each year, 



SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND MISSIONARIES. 241 

institutes have been held along the lines of these years 
by the county secretary, aided by others, at the Butler 
School, at Ross, Merrillville, Hammond, Hobart, 
Lake Station, Hurlburt Corners, Le Roy, Eagle 
Creek, Plum Grove, Orchard Grave, South East 
Grove, Lowell, Pine Grove, Creston, and Crown 
Point. 

In 1890, when the work of organizing schools was 
about completed, there were reported forty-five 
"schools of the present," also forty-five "schools of the 
past," and twenty-two- schools not connected with the 
County convention, Catholic, Lutheran, and Unita- 
rian. 

On Wednesday, August 29, 1894, "The Lake Coun- 
ty Sabbath School Convention" was changed to "The 
Lake County Sunday School Union." "A new consti- 
tution was adopted and allegiance to the State Associ- 
ation was pledged. This action marks an epoch in 
the Sunday School history of Lake County/ 1 * It cer- 
tainly did mark quite a change in some respects. A 
new name, a new object, a new constitution, and a 
new time for holding anniversary meetings. The old 
organization continued for twenty-nine years and 
then came to a sudden and unexpected close. The 
new one has not enlisted the interest of many of the 
schools of the county. What it may do remains to 
be seen. 



* Quoted from the Awakener of Indianapolis. 



242 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

SUNDAY SCHOOL STATISTICS. 

Counties. Schools. Membership. 

Lake 46 *4,50o 

Porter 39 *4 000 

La Porte 59 7,460 

Starke 26 2,027 

Pulaski 46 *4,ooo 

White 66 *6,ooo 

Jasper 64 4,029 

Newton 32 *3,ooo 

Total 378 3S>oi6 

The figures here given, as to the membership of 
the schools, are not all of them in accordance with offi- 
cial reports, but none are less than the official reports 
at hand, and are sufficiently accurate for comparison. 

MISSIONARIES. 

Among those who have gone from Indiana to 
heathen lands as missionaries Lake County has sent 
out one. 

Mrs. Annie (Turner) Morgan, a member of a pio- 
neer family, the third daughter of Judge David Tur- 
ner, was born in Crown Point ; was a member of the 
Crown Point Presbyterian Sunday School, was edu- 
cated in Crown Point, and at Oxford in Ohio; was 
married to the Rev. Freeman E. Morgan of Elgin, 
111., a Baptist minister, who spent some time in Crown 
Point, and the two, having been appointed as mis- 
sionaries by the American Baptist Missionary Union, 
left for India by way of Europe, in October, 1879. 



*Estimated. 



SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND MISSIONARIES. 243 

Mr. Morgan was stationed at Kurnool, a city of 
25,000 inhabitants, on the Tungabhadra River, in the 
Madras presidency of India, his field extending out- 
ward from twenty to forty miles. Mr. and Mrs. Mor- 
gan were members of the Telugu mission, fifteen mil- 
lions of people speaking the Telugu language. The 
name was formerly written Teloogoo. For seven 
years valuable labor was performed among the Te- 
lugus, and missionary life was well learned, when the 
family were obliged to return to this country on ac- 
count of Mr. Morgan's health. His affliction termi- 
nated fatally in a few years. Mrs. Morgan and her 
children are living near her early home. Twenty full 
years have passed since she went forth full of hope to 
do good service in the wide mission field, that "field" 
which "is the world." 

Porter County has also been represented in the 
foreign field. Miss Carrie Buchanan, daughter of the 
Rev. J. N. Buchanan of Hebron, for eight years a 
missionary of the United Presbyterian Church, hav- 
ing her portion of the field in Egypt, returned to her 
home in Hebron on account of failing health in the 
fall of 1899. It is understood that she will soon re- 
turn to her Egyptian field. 

White County has a representative now in Persia 
as a missionary physician. Miss Emma T. Miller was 
born in Monon, then called Bradford, received her first 
school instruction there and then at the high school 
at Monticello. In September, 1886, she entered the 
Cook County Nurses' Training School, Chicago, hav- 
ing some six years before, when fifteen years of age, 
felt herself called to do mission work. She graduated 
in 1888, in the spring, and the next fall entered the 
Womans' Medical College of Chicago, and graduated 



244 . NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

"with high honors'' in 1890. In 1891 she sailed from 
New York and reached Oroomiah, in Persia, where 
she became matron of the hospital which had been es- 
tablished there. "Her work consists in attendance on 
the patients in the hospital, teaching a class in Ma- 
teria Medica, and answering calls from the people in 
the surrounding country." Dr. Emma T. Miller is 
still in active work.* 

Presbyterian teachers in what Mrs. Moore calls 
Home Missions, aiding the colored people of the 
South. Mrs. Mary E. Allen, born in Indiana, for 
some years a pastor's wife in the South, established 
the Mary Allen Seminary at Crockett, in Texas, for 
the education of "colored girls," which was opened 
in 1886. Rev. J. B. Smith, then Presbyterian pastor 
at Monti-cello, left that church to take charge of the 
Seminary. The teachers from northwestern Indiana 
have been : Miss Margaret P. Bolles, from Reming- 
ton, a teacher there in the public schools, who went to 
Mary Allen Seminary in 1866, but who returned to 
Remington in feeble health and died in 1895, and Miss 
Ella Ferguson, of Monticello, now in the Seminary, 
"the head teacher, a noble woman and good worker." 

Jasper County has a representative also in the 
same kind of mission work, a Baptist teacher, Miss 
May Huston, daughter of Rev. D. J. Huston, a noble, 
devoted young lady, teaching at Nashville, Tenn. 

ORDINATION OF MISSIONARIES. 

On Monday, May 28, 1900, at the Congregational 
Church in East Chicago, Rev. Thomas Gray and wife 



* From Mrs. A. Y. Moore's "Sketches of Indiana Mis- 
sionary Women of the Presbyterian Church." 1900. 

* Mrs. Moore. Page 67. 



SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND MISSIONARIES. 245 

were set apart to go as missionaries to Micronecia, 
They were both examined in the afternoon by an ex- 
amining board and their examination was said to 
have been extremely satisfactory. The ordination 
services were held in the evening in the presence of a 
large audience. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 

In some stages of society and connected with some 
occupations, the history of villages, towns, and cities, 
is to a large extent the history of that region, for the 
people are mainly in the towns and cities, and from 
them usually go forth the guiding and controlling in- 
fluences. But the more fully any region is strictly 
agricultural, the less number of large towns will it 
have, and the true history will be made much more in 
the country homes, on the farms and by the firesides. 
And as the counties south of the Kankakee are agri- 
cultural, their history is to a large extent the gradual 
increase of home comforts, the growth of school and 
church life, and the diffusion of intelligence among 
thousands of peaceful, prosperous homes. Yet villages 
and towns have sprung up, as the needs of the people, 
and an enjoyment of railroad facilities required, and a 
notice of these will give a quite full idea of the growth 
of the communities. As there are many of these vil- 
lages and towns, the notice of each must be brief. 

Remembering what the region was when we first 
took a mental view of it, as it was actually seen by 
a few in 1830, beginning with the broad belt of the 
Grand Prairie, its rich soil, tall grass, beautiful sum- 
mer and autumn flowers, as it extended over the 
southern portions of what are now the counties of 
Newton and Jasper and White, and even up into Pu- 
laski, and then looking upon Beaver Lake and the 



TOWNS AND^VILLAGES. 247 

"oak barrens" of the once large Jasper, and the "fly 
meadows" and timber lands of level Pulaski, having 
left the large water courses and the outcropping lime- 
stone region, and crossing the wet lands and the sand 
ridges south of the Kankakee, and passing on north- 
ward, glancing over the wide marsh and then the 
beautiful prairies and the thick timber and open wood- 
lands, and rivers and creeks and small marshes and 
lakes, till we looked upon the broad waters of Lake 
Michigan, we shall now, as we go over this then In- 
dian home and luxuriant hunting ground, find abun- 
dant traces of the presence, the enterprise, the skill of 
the white man. 

Villages, towns, and cities are now to receive our 
attention, and their number and appearance, and re- 
sources, will show what seventy years have done in 
the progress of modern civilization. We start upon 
a railroad, and may as well look first upon the growing 
town of Newton County. As the results of the United 
States Census are not yet public, the population given 
is estimated: 

i. Morocco. — Population, i.ooo; location, south- 
east quarter of section 21, township 29, range 9. (As 
all of northwestern Indiana, as here included, is west 
of the second principle meridian, the word "west," in 
marking or naming the ranges is usually omitted.) 
The following memorandum was given by a citizen 
for insertion here : "The town of Morocco was laid 
off in 1850, by John Murphy, an early frontier man. 
He was born in old Virginia, moved to Ohio when a 
mere boy, from this to Lafayette, Indiana, where he 
enlisted in the Black Hawk war, and after the Indian 
trouble was settled came to Morocco." This was as 
early as 1833. He lived to be 72 years of age. The 



248 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

growth of Morocco, as a village, was for many years 
slow, but in 1855, the Bank of North America, it is 
said, "flourished here," and it further said that the 
president of this bank was chosen for his skill in 'coon 
hunting. (The village at one time had quite a fur 
trade). The cashier of the bank owned the village 
smith shop. The amount of capital of this peculiar 
bank is not stated in the records consulted, but it is 
declared that, unlike the early "red-dog and wild-cat" 
banks, it did redeem its issues. The history of this vil- 
lage for the next forty years is not to be here given. 
It was in a quite inaccessible part of the State. North 
of it, covering nearly all of township 30, was Beaver 
Lake, and all the northern part of what was then Jas- 
per County, was called, in 1856, in Colton's large at- 
las, "Oak Barrens," and no indications of any settle- 
ments appear on that map northeast of Beaver Lake. 
But Beaver Lake is not a lake now, and in 1889, the 
Chicago and Eastern Illinois railroad passed through 
Morocco and placed it in connection with all the 
world. It may be stated here that on Rand & Mc- 
Nally's new "Universal Atlas," up-to-date as that 
work is supposed to be, all the northeastern portion 
and nearly all the northern part of Newton County 
is heavily shaded as though representing marsh and 
swamp, or something of that kind. But one who 
travels over that region now, in township 31, range 8, 
and township 31, range 9, will find that this excellent 
atlas has hardly done justice to Newton County. 
Some sand ridges and a plenty of sand he will find, 
some marsh land he will see, but farms and ranches, 
and family homes he will find lying along the roads 
from Lake Village to Thayer and to Rose Lawn. 
From this digression, coming back to Morocco, as a 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 249 

town, it was incorporated in 1890. In the last few 
years it has grown rapidly. The population is esti- 
mated at fully 1,000. Five brick buildings have been 
erected, including a three-story brick hotel; it has 
four churches, Methodist, Episcopal, "Christian," 
United Brethren, and Baptist, the last-named, a stone 
and brick building, commenced in 1899, and the 
United Brethren having erected an excellent brick 
church in 1898; it has a brick school house for 1900; 
it has a tile factory, and many business houses of vari- 
ous kinds. It waited long for much improvement, but 
enterprise and growth seem now to be imprinted upon 
the living town. The soil seems favorable for the 
growth of fruit. W. Murphy, on a little more than 
one town lot, raised, in 1899, twenty-two bushels of 
strawberries ; and in July he had trees loaded with 
peaches, and blackberries were ripening then in abun- 
dance. 

2. Lake Village. — Population, 120; on section 16, 
township 31, range 9, is quite an early settled place. 
It is in the civil township named Lake, and bears the 
name, probably on that account, of Lake Village. It 
has no railroad communication with the world, being 
about eight miles from Thayer or Rose Lawn. West- 
ward, about eleven miles, in Illinois, is Momence. It 
is a place of some business. "The religious element 
is Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian." It has had 
a Sunday school for many years. 

3. Rose Lawn. — Population, 300. The name of 
this place suggests beauty. But a natural suggestion 
in regard to the origin of the name would be far from 
correct. Before the railroad was completed, now 
called the "Monon," which was in 1882, three men 
formed a company and opened a store on the line of 



250 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

the coming road. They were : Jacob Keller of North 
Judson, Lon Craig of Winamac, and Orlando Rose 
of Missouri. A name was wanted for the locality 
and some one proposed to combine a surname and 
one given name and call it Rose Lon. The sound of 
the last name was slightly changed and so the place 
became known as Rose Lawn. No more wild roses 
grew there than elsewhere in Newton County, and 
on the ridge of sand there was no lawn. When, in 
1882, the railroad reached that place it was for a time 
a terminus, till the track could be laid across the 
river and the marsh up to Lowell. Yet on account 
of its nearness to Thayer and an agreement that had 
been made there in getting the right of way, it was 
difficult to secure at Rose Lawn a side track and a 
depot or station. This was finally accomplished at a 
cost of about $2,000. While quite a business point 
growth was not rapid. In the last few years many 
improvements have been made. There are several 
business houses, one large store with two rooms, a 
school house, a church, and the streets have ma- 
cadam pavement. It is now a thriving little town, 
about four miles south of the Kankakee. 

4. Thayer. — Population, 100. This village, on the 
"Monon" road, about a mile from the river, secured a 
station before the neighboring village called Rose 
Lawn, but it has not made as good use of its oppor- 
tunities, and 'has not attained much growth. It has 
a good two-story school house, used also for Sunday 
school and church gatherings, and is slowly improv- 
ing. It has some business houses. 

5. Mt. Ayr. — Population, — . This town is on the 
railroad that runs north from Goodland, and is thir- 
teen miles from that place, on the northeast corner of 



towns'and villages. 251 

section 23, township 29, range 8. The railroad passes 
from Goodland through the center of sections 26, 23, 
then northward through the center of 14, 11, 2 
and in the next township of 35, 26, 23, 14, 11, 
2, and then, still running north, cuts the east side 
of section 35, as in that township (29), the sections 
are far from being exactly north of those in 28 and 
2J. Mt. Ayr is about midway between Morocco and 
Rensselaer, being eight miles from Morocco and near- 
ly due east. It is a pleasant town. 

6. Beaver City is a railroad station on the north- 
west of section 2, township 28, range 9. It has one 
elevator but few houses. 

7. Brook is the next station on the southeast, com- 
ing from Morocco. This is an enterprising and a true 
business place. Its inhabitants are ambitious. Its 
location is on the northwest quarter of section 19, 
township 28, range 8. It is in an old settled neigh- 
borhood. 

8. Foresman is nearly east of Brook, on the other 
railroad, three and one-half miles distant, near the 
center of section 14. Like Beaver City, it is not a 
large place, but a good shipping point. 

West of Kentland, among the names of railroad 
stations, is mentioned Effner. It is on the State line. 
It has no stores, no business to any extent. A school 
house is near the station, and a neighborhood of sev- 
eral families around it. 

9. Kentland. — Population, 800. This town is the 
county seat of Newton County. The first house was 
built in i860 by William Ross, who now resides in 
Indianapolis, and is nearly blind, but who happened 
to be in Kentland July 26, 1899, and stated that he 
put up the first building where the town now is, kept 



252 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

a store there for several years, was the first sta- 
tion agent and the first postmaster. The court house 
was also built in i860. It is a frame building, and is 
said to have cost $1,000. It is in use still. The public 
square or ground in front of the building, is large, 
quite large, and is well supplied with shade trees. It 
affords ample room for the gathering of thousands, 
and for the ball games of the smaller boys, and is in- 
deed quite a natural park. A stand and permanent 
seats indicate that the citizens meet there for public 
exercises on their gala days. In Kentland are four 
churches, Catholic, "Christian," Methodist, and Pres- 
byterian. There are eight lawyers and five physi- 
cians. The town is supplied with telephones and elec- 
tric lights. Oats and corn are shipped. It is but 
four miles from the State line and about one and a 
half from the county line, and is so near to the corner 
of the county that an effort has been made to have the 
county seat removed to Morocco, but at an election 
held in June, 1900, Kentland received 1,446 votes and 
Morocco only 1,398. So the county seat seems likely 
to remain at Kentland, and probably a new court 
house will before long be built. 

10. Goodland. — Population, 1,800. This is the 
second town west from the Illinois line, on the Lo- 
gansport and Peoria railroad, eight miles east of 
Kentland. Its area is nearly one square mile, section 
26, township 27, range 8. It has five churches, Rom- 
an Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist Episcopal, Bap- 
tist, house erected in 1895, and Presbyterian, date of 
building, 1897. There are in town two elevators and 
one a short distance north of the town, and large 
quantities of oats and corn are shipped. This is a 
business town. One of the prominent business men 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 253 

is J. A. Patton. He deals in butter, eggs, poultry, 
game, birds, and wool, shipping to the east. His busi- 
ness amounts to $100,000 a year. Like Kentland, 
this town also has telephones and electric lights. The 
side walks are largely of Bedford stone. There are 
two banks, ten or twelve physicians, many business 
houses. There is a good school building. The town 
has the appearance of more than the ordinary neat- 
ness, thrift, and enterprise, characterizing so many of 
our towns and villages. There must evidently be 
among the citizens of Goodland much public spirit 
and intelligence.* 

These ten are the towns and villages and stations 
of Newton. 

Jasper County is almost entirely devoted to agri- 
culture or to farming and stock raising, and its towns 
are few. In 1883, the Indiana, Illinois and Iowa rail- 
road went across the Kankakee Valley from east to 
west, and gave three principle stations in the north 
of Jasper, Dunnville, Wheatfield, and De Motte. Oil 
has lately been found here, especially south of Wheat- 
field, and there may be large town growth here in a 
few years. These places are now not very large. 

i. Dunnville, about two miles west of the county 
line, in Kankakee township, is a somewhat thriving 
town, the population being estimated at from three 
to five hundred. It has but one church building, 
which is Methodist Episcopal. There is a Baptist 
church in the township, and Baptist meetings were 
held in the town in the early summer of this year 



* I am indebted to the very accommodating and intelli- 
gent pastor of the Baptist Church at Goodland, Rev. W. F. 
Carpenter, for courtesies and for information. T. H. B. 



254 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

(1900), with much success. A school and some busi- 
ness houses are now among the necessities of town 
life. 

2. Wheatfield is said to have been so named be- 
cause it is situated where once was the first wheat 
field in the county. It is on the crossing of the Indi- 
ana, Illinois and Iowa, and what was once called the 
Chicago and Indiana Coal railway. The church build- 
ings are: Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and "Chris- 
tian." It commenced village life about twenty years 
ago. It is four miles west of Dunnville, and is now 
quite a growing town feeling the influence of the oil 
wells. Population, 500. 

3. De Motte, eight miles further west, has not 
made a large growth since the first impulse which 
the railroad gave passed away. But it now has three 
churches, Methodist Episcopal, Free Methodist, and 
Hollander "Reformed." It has a pleasant location. Its 
population may be called 300. It bears the name of 
a former congressman, Mark L. De Motte of Valpa- 
raiso. There is a station called Stroutsburg, four 
miles west of De Motte, but not yet classed among 
the towns. About two and a half miles east of De 
Motte is a locality called Kersey, which is the point 
of departure toward the southeast for a peculiar rail- 
road, the Chicago and Wabash Valley road, of which 
mention will be made, and on which villages are start- 
ing, to be known as Zadoe, Laura, Gifiord, Comer, 
and Lewiston. These are agricultural shipping points 
on a private road riming through a large estate owned 
by Mr. B. J. GifTord. 

4. Fair Oaks has a pleasant location, section 6, 
southeast quarter, township 30, range 7. Population 
about 300. On the high ridge of the town are the 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 255 

school house and two quite new, neat-looking 
churches, the one "Christian," the other Methodist 
Episcopal. The town is growing. 

5. Remington. — Estimated population, 1,200; date 
i860. This is one of those growing towns on the 
Logansport and Peoria railroad. It is eight miles 
east of Goodland and sixteen from Kentland, and 
twenty from the State line. It has had a fair growth 
in forty years. Like Goodland, it is in a rich farming 
region. It has five elevators. Oats, corn, hay, 
and live stock are shipped. Also some horses. It 
has telephones and waterworks. The well which 
furnishes water for the town is 315 feet deep. The 
tower or standpipe is of brick for 80 feet, with 
a tank 24 feet in depth, making the entire height 
104 feet. The churches are four: Presbyterian, 
Roman Catholic, Methodist, and "Christian." The 
various secret orders, so-called, are well represented. 
These are : Masons, Odd Fellows, Grand Army of the 
Republic, Womans' Relief Corps, Knights of Pythias, 
Daughters of Rebekah, Woodmen of the World, 
Rathbone Sisters, Eastern Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, Catholic Order of Foresters, Knights of 
the Maccabees, and Modern Woodmen of America. 
These all, and the four churches, are advertised in the 
Remington paper. 

6. Rensselaer. — Population, 2,500. According to 
some authorities, the first settlement, in what is now 
Jasper County, was made where is now the county 
seat, the town for many years, and now the city, of 
Rensselaer. In 1834, so it is claimed, one family, John 
Nowels, his son David, born September 15, 1821, and 
so at that time 13 years of age, a married daughter 
and her husband, Joseph Yeoman, and a young 



256 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



daughter, made for themselves a home at this locality 
on the Iroquois River, the place being then called the 
Rapids. Here Joseph Yeoman built the first log- 
cabin on the ground where now stands the Rensselaer 
bank. It is evident that this account differs from that 
given in Chapter III, where the earliest settlers are 
named on the authority of the Historical Atlas of 
Indiana, the traditions and recollections on which 
that work is based having been collected more than 
twenty-five years ago, when many pioneers were liv- 
ing. That authority places the settlement at the 
Rapids in 1836. Mr.David Nowels, who was visited 
in his city 'home October 16, 1899, confirms the date 
of his father's settlement as having been in 1834. In 
some of these counties the records and evidences are 
such that there is no room to question who was the 
first settler. In others the question cannot be per- 
fectly settled. That a cabin was built where is now 
a city, on section 30, township 29, range 6, as early as 
1836, perhaps in 1834, seems very certain. The vil- 
lage that soon came into existence was called Newton, 
and it became the county seat about 1839. The first 
term of court was held in Newton in 1840. There 
came from the East about 1838 or 1839, James C. 
Van Rensselaer, a descendant of a wealthy New York 
family, who bought thousands of acres of land, built 
a mill, had the name changed from Newton, the name 
of that great philosopher Sir Isaac, to his own name 
of Rensselaer, and looked for the coming city. But 
in his day the city came not. In 1876, before the rail- 
road passed through, it was called, by a writer in the 
Historical Atlas, "a quiet and, in some respects, an 
attractive country village." In what respects it fell a 
little short of "attractive" that writer says not. In 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 257 

1870 the number of inhabitants was 617. It shared 
with Remington, that town having a railroad, in the 
commercial business of the county, but in 1876 Rem- 
ington was called "the leading town in the county, 
both as regards business and inhabitants." But a rail- 
road passed through in 1882, and then the town did 
grow. It soon became the residence of quite wealthy 
men who erected nice dwelling houses and solid busi- 
ness blocks. One of these men, Alfred McCoy, born 
in 1831, becoming a citizen of the county in 1852, 
owns in Jasper some five thousand acres of land, and 
commenced, eight miles eastward on the road, a 
villa, now bearing the name of McCoysburg. At this 
suburb of the real city cattle are sold and bought, 
pastured and fed, for some little time, and shipped to 
different parts of the country and to Canada. The 
cattle market is held once in two weeks. On Satur- 
day, October 7, 1899, thirty-eight hundred head of 
cattle changed owners. Other wealthy men of Rensse- 
laer have their individual interests. Mr. David Nowels, 
son of the first settler, owned at one time thirty-five 
hundred acres of Jasper County lands. Rensselaer 
has now two large school houses, with only a street 
and the school grounds between them — seven hun- 
dred and sixty-four school children in the city in 
1898, — a number of church buildings, and a new 
large court house. The churches are : one Roman 
Catholic; a Baptist, a Primitive Bapt"st, and a Free- 
will Baptist, and a Presbyterian; a Methodist Episco- 
pal; a ''Christian;" and one Adventist, called the 
"Church of God." In all eight. Rensselaer was in- 
corporated as a c'ty in 1897. Population about twenty- 
five hundred. The Iroquois River runs through the 
city. 



258 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

The water works of the city are somewhat peculiar. 
The water is obtained from two wells, one being two 
hundred and seventy feet in depth, and the other 
two thousand feet. The tower, one hundred feet in 
height, is not, as in other towns, a large cylindrical 
tower, but a comparatively small pipe firmly encased 
and surmounted by a water tank apparently about 
thirty feet in depth, ibut said to be forty feet deep. 
This "stand pipe" does not make as fine an appearance 
as the brick or iron cylindrical towers but seems to 
answer the same purpose. 

"The Peoples' Pilot" of Renesslaer, early in Jan- 
uary, 1896, issued a large holiday historical and de- 
scriptive number, containing information concerning 
the business men and prominent citizens of the town. 
Some statements gathered from 1 that number found 
in the hands of Dr. Utter, of Crown Point, then a 
pastor at Rensselaer, have been mserted here. The 
statements coming from home writers are considered 
very reliable. 

The Primitive Baptist church was constituted May 
7, 1877, with seven members. First pastor Elder Wil- 
liam Jackson ; the second Elder W. R. Nowels ; a 
building erected in 1892; about forty members. 

A church called the "Church of Christ," was or- 
ganized in April, 1887. A Christian Endeavor So- 
ciety, in 1892. 

The Presbyterians in Rensselaer had for some time 
quite a struggle for existence. 

Commenced with nine members, "there were times 
when the church had apparent prosperity, but 

* * * for long stretches of years, at one time 
from 1866 to 1883, not one ray of light came." 

The church was constituted February 20, 1847. 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 259 

Some of the early ministers were, E. Wright, F. M. 
Chestnut, and T. Wharton. For seventeen years the 
church had no pastor. 

The first church building was completed in 1852. 
It cost $1,200. A new church has taken its place 
now, but to the Presbyterians of Jasper, the old build- 
ing is like the one on Rolling Prairie to the Baptists 
of La Porte County. One of these Presbyterian mem- 
bers, W. B. Austin, writes : "The old church has 
passed from our sight, but not from our memory. To 
many of us some of the fondest and sweetest memories 
of childhood and youth are entwined with the old 
building." 

"Here was the cradle of Presbyterianism in this 
county ; here were baptized as infants and adults rep- 
resentatives of almost every family in the town and 
surrounding country." 

"The songs, the Sunday school, the Christmas en- 
tertainments, the festivals, the harvest homes, the 
choir practices, the installations, have so engraven 
themselves that the lapse of years will not eradicate 
them." It speaks well for a community when, in the 
hearts of many such associations cluster around a 
church building. 

The pastor at Rensselear in 1895 was Rev. M. R. 
Paradis. 

The Odd Fellows' Lodge, erected in 1896, cost 
$9,000. The O. F. hall is considered equal to any in 
the State. 

Near Rensselaer are the St. Joseph's College and 
the Indian Normal School. 

The Catholic church, called St. Augustine's church, 
is quite strong, the membership being given as five 
hundred, or one hundred families. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 

In White County the large towns are not many. 
Eleven villages and towns will be named here. In 
the northeastern part of the county are three country 
villages having schools, some business, and mail facil- 
ities, but on no railroad. These are Buffalo, Sitka, 
and New Bedford. West of these, on two railroads 
is Monon, formerly called Bradford. 

It is on section 21, township 28, range 4, la : d out 
originally oh the northeast quarter of the section by 
James Brooks, James K. Wilson and Benjamin Ball 
in 1854 laid out additions. The first house was built 
in 1853. Joseph Chamberlain built a storeroom in 
connection with his dwelling house. Two other houses 
were built in the same year. 

In 1879 tne town was incorporated with the name 
Monon. It is quite a shipping point for grain. Three 
hundred thousand bushels shipped in a year. 

In Monon are now streets paved with stone, the 
macadam pavement it is called, some well built busi- 
ness houses, a good-sized school house, and three 
churches. 

These are : Methodist Episcopal, Baptist, and Pres- 
byterian. 

A small stream runs near the town. The two rail- 
roads make considerable business. The town has 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 261 

improved quite a little in the last few years. Popula- 
tion probably six hundred. 

Wolcott, in White County, is the next town east 
of Remington, five miles, on the same railroad. Its 
population is about eight hundred. The churches are 
three, Methodist Episcopal, "Christian," and Baptist. 
There are three physicians and two lawyers. This 
is a great grain shipping point. There are two ele- 
vators, and it is said that as many as 10,000 bushels 
of oats and corn have been taken in on one day. One 
of the best, if not the very best, road in all Northern 
Indiana extends for four miles north of Wolcott, up 
near to the "Blue Sea." It is hard, smooth, and surely 
will be durable, made of crushed bowlders. Travelling 
on this road is delightful. In fact, this county is in 
advance of the other seven counties, unless it may be 
Lake, in improved roads. In Whr'te County, the con- 
struction of gravel roads commenced in 1885. Some 
have been made by private enterprise, but mostly they 
are built by the township or county. But see "Im- 
proved Roads." 

Near Wolcott is a large sand bed covering an area 
of ten or fifteen acres from which sand excellent glass 
tumblers are made. No doubt much nice glass ware 
could be made from this sand. It lies about four feet 
from the surface and has been examined to a depth 
of one hundred and forty feet without reaching the 
bottom. Probably some day at Wolcott will be a 
large manufactory for glass ware. 

The town now has three dry goods stores, five 
grocery stores, one furniture store, two banks, and a 
good, frame school house, with five teachers.. It is 
thirteen and a half miles from the south line of White 
County. In 1859 it was all open prairie, a part of 



262 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



the Grand Prairie which extended over all the south 
parts of Newton and Jasper counties, and across the 
western part of White up into Pulaski. As might 
be expected from a prairie region, much hay is shipped 
as well as corn and oats. As a railroad station Wol- 
cott dates from i860 as do the other towns on this 
line. It is a neat looking town, evidently improving. 
Forty years it has had of growth. 

Reynolds, west from Logansport twenty-seven 
miles on the crossing of the New Albany and Logans- 
port and Peoria roads, while an old station, has not 
advanced rapidly. The estimated population is five 
hundred. 

The churches are : Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist 
Episcopal, "Christian," and, counting one out a little 
way in the country, Advent. In all five. 

Seafield is a station six miles west of Reynolds. 
One church; M. E. 

Chalmers. Population 800. — This place, which bears 
the name of one of the great and good men of Scot- 
land, is south of Reynolds alb out seven miles, on the 
same road. There are three churches, one Presby- 
terian, one Methodist, one Baptist, and business 
houses such as would be needful in such a town. The 
people are enterprising. 

This was first called Mudge's Station, a house hav- 
ing been built by a man named Mudge, probably in 

1853- 

The Methodist church here, erected in 1881, cost 
$1,500, and will seat five hundred people. 

Six miles east of Monticello is a station called 
Idaville. It is in the center of section 28, township 
27, range 2, twelve miles east from, Reynolds. 

There is here quite a large Presbyterian congrega- 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 263 

tion and a Sunday school with about one hundred 
members. It is a place of some business. 

Burnettsville, three miles further east on the same 
road, is on the northwest quarter of section 25, town- 
ship 27, range 2. This is quite a town. It is very 
near the southeast corner of the county. The Baptist 
church here numbers 184 members. 

There was an early town, which like many others, 
failed to live on into these latter years, situated on 
the Tippecanoe River, section 21, township 27, range 
3, where, in 1845* William Sill had in operation "a 
merchant grist-mill/' also a carding mill. In 1845 tne 
town was laid out and called Mount Walleston, but 
the name was soon changed to Norway. In 1850 this 
was quite a village, competing with Monticello in en- 
terprise and population. But it did not live. 

As the name indicates, this was an early Norwegian 
settlement, and one of these pioneers from Northern 
Europe bought a thousand acres of the choicest of this 
land near Norway. A saw-mill was started here about 
1833. The name of this then large land holder was 
Hans Erasmus Hiorth. Another of these Norwegians 
was Peter B. Smith. 

Monticello. Population 2,000. — This locality, on the 
west bank of the Tippecanoe River, section 33, town- 
ship 2J, range 3, was selected for a county seat, named, 
town lots laid out and a sale ordered, in 1834, soon 
after the organization of the county. William Sill is 
called the first settler, who opened a store in 1834 
and became the first merchant in W 7 hite county. It is 
said that Peter Price built a cabin just w^est of Mon- 
ticello in 183 1 and became the first settler of Union 
Township. 

In the new town Malachi Gray was the first hotel 



264 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

keeper. Early lawyers were : T. M. Thompson, R. 
W. Sill, and Judge David Turpice, who 1 at length be- 
came United States Senator. Early physicians were : 
Dr. Samuel Rifenberrick, Dr. Rudolph Brearley, and 
Dr. Alson Potut. 

In 1853 the town was incorporated. A large brick 
school building was completed in 1870, costing forty 
thousand dollars. It has a massive looking court 
house which is elsewhere mentioned. In front of the 
court house, in the public square, is a well of cool 
water, said to be in d-epth one hundred feet, and on two 
sides are plain seats for about twenty-five men and 
boys. These boys of Monticello have a delightful 
bathing place about three-quarters of a mile up the 
river, where the bank is low, sufficiently well shaded, 
the place secluded so that no bathing dresses are 
needed and no intrusions feared; the river bottom 
sandy, the cool, clear, flowing water of the Tippecanoe 
deep enough for swimming and diving, — all the cir- 
cumstances combining for pleasant bathing. And 
well the boys seem to enjoy it. Exposure in the sun- 
shine in the water has fitted them to be what one has 
called "boys in their sunny-brown beauty." And their 
stranger friend who visited them while they were 
diving and swimming in the morning hours of Thurs- 
day, July 27, 1899, and saw them in the afternoon 
of that day around the well and on the ground of the 
public square, reclining on the grass, calls these Mon- 
ticello boys well-mannered. They showed no rude- 
ness to a stranger. 

Monticello has some streets paved with crushed 
stone; it has electric lights, telephones, and "water 
works." The water supply is from a spring some 
twenty feet in depth. The steel stand pipe is one 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 265 

hundred feet in height, or entire height one hundred 
and sixteen feet. The fire company have hose but no 
engine. The force of the water in the pipes is suffi- 
cient for their needs. 

There are some neat residences in the town and 
some good business houses. There are three hotels 
and a boarding house. 

There are three church buildings : the Presbyterian, 
a large brick structure, date 1873; the Methodist, also 
of brick, large, no date; and the "Christian," an older 
looking frame building. 

Population about two thousand. 

In Pulaski County as in White the large towns are 
few, and the first one to be noticed is the county seat. 

Winamac. Population 1,800. — Note. Much of the 
history of this town was taken from a paper read by 
Mrs. M. H. Ingrim, before the Woman's Culture 
Club of Winamac, April 29, 1899. I have added to 
the statements the results of my own observations and 
researches made in 1899. T. H. B . 

In the year 1837 a trapper named Kelly built a 
"pole-hut" on the Tippecanoe River and resided there 
until his death, in September of that year. He was 
one of the first inhabitants. Two log cabins were in 
1838 "Winamac's next buildings." The names of 
builders unknown. 

George P. Terry and Hampton W. Hornbeck are 
the next residents recognized after the trapper Kelly 
and they occupied one of these log cabins, keeping 
house for themselves, obtaining some supplies from 
Logansport, depending on their guns and fish hooks 
for meat. Deer, raccoons, and squirrels were abund- 
ant, and their flesh, with a little salt pork, flour, meal, 
sugar and coffee, from Logansport, made good, hearty 



266 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

living. These men were preparing land for tillage 
and not then directly building up a town. John Pear- 
son, who seems to have had a family, before the year 
1838 closed, occupied the other of those two log 
cabins, but soon built something 'more commodious, 
and then started a store with "two hundred dollars 
worth of goods and notions," selling to a few settlers 
who had founded the Hackett and Wasson neighbor- 
hoods, and to the Pottawatomies who brought in ex- 
change cranberries and maple sugar and venison. 
When commerce comimences town life soon follows, 
and more inhabitants came, and in 1839 the county 
seat was located. Twenty-two blocks were laid out in 
town lots and twelve streets located and named. 

Twenty of these blocks contained eight lots each. 
Soon a government land office was located at Wina- 
mac, the ore at La Porte, probably, having been re- 
moved to that place. The office was opened in a log 
building and entries of land were soon made. But 
the growth of the town was for some time quite slow. 
In 1846 there were about thirty families. In 1868 the 
town was incorporated, one hundred and seven votes 
then being cast. Churches, schools, banks and busi- 
ness houses came along, as. the needs of the inhabitants 
of the now growing town required, and at length sub- 
stantial, fine looking brick blocks were erected, the 
Keller block in 1880, the Frain block in 1883. The 
church buildings of the present are : a Roman Cath- 
olic, large brick building, quite massive amid the 
buildings around it, the most costly church building 
in the county ; a Presyterian brick structure, fine look- 
ing, the second in cost in the county; the third in the 
town is Methodist Episcopal, a . frame building, 
painted white, standing over the burial place, so tra- 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 267 

dition says, of chief Winamae; the fourth is the 
"Christian" church, a frame building; the fifth is an 
old frame building occupied by the United Brethren 
and Free Methodists ; and the sixth is the Lutheran. 

Winamae has a brick school house, two stories 
and basement, built in 1895, costing twenty thousand 
dollars. A. F. Reid, Superintendent. Number of 
teachers, ten. School children in the town, five hun- 
dred and fifty. 

Mr. Thomas Hackett is called the oldest resident 
of Winamae. Another old resident of the county is 
Mr. James Rover, living a mile and a half out of town, 
over the river, who was 'born in October, 1816. He is 
a good Christian man, a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, an active man, with his faculties still 
in good condition. 

Being a county seat there are in the town many 
resident lawyers, among whom, in years, experience, 
and strong principles, Judge Spangler would surely 
rank high. 

There is quite an industry in the edge of the town, 
a steam canning factory and hominy factory; build- 
ings of brick. 

The Tippecanoe River, a very pretty stream of 
water, is, at the town, one hundred and forty feet in 
width. The first island in the river below the town 
was the scene, according to tradition, of a sad tragedy 
in the Indian times. Their name for the island was 
Wasatch-a-hoo-la, the meaning said to be ghost or 
spirit island. Young Mi-neek-e-sunk-ta, "a dark-eyed 
Indian belle," was here one day with a young war- 
rior who sought her love and wished to make her his 
wife. But already "to another tribal lover" "she had 
plighted her troth," and of course rejected his suit. 



268 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Then fully equal in savage conduct to the young 
civilized white men of our day who shoot the white 
maidens that reject their horrid kind of love, this 
young savage, in his disappointment and rage, toma- 
hawked the beautiful belle upon the spot, buried her 
body in the sand of the island, and disappeared in his 
canoe. He was not quite refined enough, like some 
of our "high-toned" young men, to kill himself also, 
but lived, possibly, to regret, and it may be hoped, to 
repent. "Mi-meek-e-sunk-ta's spirit is said to appear 
there and chant its wailing song frequently at the mid- 
night hour." 

A fitting legend is this for the town of Win-a-mac, 
where the Pottawatomies lingered till 1844. 

Next to Winamac in size are the following eight 
towns, villages,and stations: Medaryville,Francesville, 
Monterey, Star City, Oak or Parisville, Pulaski, Den- 
ham and Thornhope. 

The comparative size of these will appear from the 
number of teachers, taken from an annual report of 
the Public Schools of Pulaski. 

Winamac nine and the Superintendent. Frances- 
ville, Medaryville, and Star City four each. Thorn- 
hope, Pulaski and Monterey, two each. Denham, 
one. 

Star City is on section 8, township 29, range 1, 
about six miles southeast of Winamac. It was laid 
out as a town in August, 1859, by John Nickles and 
Andrew Wirick. Village growth commenced in i860. 
The population is about four hundred. Although not 
yet a large place it has become a great shipping point 
for horses and for sheep. It has a large brick school 
house erected at a cost of about five thousand dollars, 
a Methodist church, a "Christian" church, and some 
Seventh Day Adventists. It is a thriving town. 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 269 

Thornhope, is a small village between Star City 
and Royal Center, a station without a station house, 
but a church, a school house, and a few families, a 
neat looking, pleasant, prosperous village. This is in 
Van Buren township, not far from the Pulaski county 
line. It is about one hundred miles from Chicago, 
as the Pan Handle Railroad counts the miles. 

Nine miles northwest from Winamac is a station 
and a small village called Denham. It is six miles 
only from North Judson. It has a large Lutheran 
congregation. 

Pulaski. Population 150.— A dam was placed across 
the Tippecanoe River at a favorable location and a 
saw-mill was put in operation there in 1854. In 1855 
a grist-mill was added, and there a village started 
taking the name of the county. Across the river was 
a quite noted mound about twelve feet high and one 
hundred feet in diameter. It would appear, therefore, 
that this had been a chosen location many long years 
ago. 

The present village 1 is not large. It has a Presby- 
terian church with a good Sabbath school, institutions 
which the mound builders could not have known. 
Also a Roman Catholic church. The school house is 
of brick. 

Monterey. Population 425, is on the Chicago & 
Erie road, eighty-four miles from Chicago. It has 
two school houses, one a frame building, the other 
a brick building. The churches are two : Roman Cath- 
olic, the building of brick, and Methodist Episcopal, 
the building of wood. 

It is the only station in Tippecanoe Township and 
is near the river. 



270 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Oak, is the postoffice name and Parisville is the 
town name of this little place, population 75, in Van 
Buren Township, on the Pan Handle road. It has one 
church, Methodist Episcopal. In the school are 75 
pupils. 

Francesville. Population 900, is nine miles north of 
Monon, on the Michigan City Division of the Chcago, 
Indianapolis & Louisville Railway. It became a rail- 
road station, and then a; village and town, like other 
places on this line when the road went through in 
1853. Its growth has not been rapid. It has three 
churches : Methodist Episcopal, Roman Catholic, 
and "Christian." It has a two story frame school 
building, with two hundred and ten pupils. The 
usual business houses and professional men,- for a 
town of a thousand inhabitants, are to be found here. 

Medaryville, population 700, is six miles north of 
Francesville, on the same railroad. About the same 
kind of soil extends through this portion of Pulaski 
County. The public school building at Medaryville 
is of brick. The pupils number one hundred and 
seventy and the teachers are in number, five. 

The churches are four : Roman Catholic, Lutheran, 
"Christian," and Methodist Episcopal. 

The business interests similar to those at Frances- 
ville. 

Knox was the name given to the locality chosen 
in April for the county seat of Starke County. It is 
on section 25 and 26, east half of one and west half 
of the other, township 33, range 2. At that time it 
was land, soon laid out in town lots, but without a 
house. But building commenced, families moved in, 
village life commenced, and then a town was formed. 
Civil as well as social life began. Its growth for sev- 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 271 

eral years was slow. Within the last few years it has 
improved rapidly. Brick buildings have gone up, 
large business houses have been opened, cement side- 
walks have been laid down, and one of the best ar- 
ranged court houses in Northern Indiana has been 
erected, completed on the inside with very modern 
improvements, at a cost of one hundred and twenty- 
five thousand dollars. The population is estimated at 
eighteen hundred. 

The Yellow River passes a little east and north oi 
the town. 

In Knox there are a Methodist Episcopal church, a 
Free Methodist church, a "Christian" church, and a 
church or congregation of Adventists, these having 
no house of worship, also a congregation of "Latter 
Day Saints" more commonly called Mormons. These 
have a ibuilding of their own. The churches are frame 
or wooden buildings. 

Knox has a good, two story school house, but not 
modern, like the court house. 

Half-way between Knox and- North Judson is a 
station called Toto. It is on the northeast corner of 
section i, township 32, range 3; has a school house, 
two stores, a Free Methodist church, about a dozen 
families, and a postoffice. This postornee is one of the 
oldest in the county, and its peculiar name, Toto, 
said to be Indian and said to mean Frogpond, was 
adopted by the railroad officials as the name for their 
station. For the original location of the office, a short 
distance away, the name is said to have been perfectly 
appropriate. Before the great and the smaller ditches 
went through the county, a frog pond, one of the old- 
est residents there says, the location was. 

Drainage, good drainage, changes the condition of 



272 NORTHWESTERN 1NDANA. 

land remarkably. The Indians would not recognize 
their "toto" now. 

North Judson. Population 1,000. — This now enter- 
prising town, seventy-seven miles out from Chicago, 
on the Pan Handle road, commenced village and busi- 
ness life about 1863. In 1867 "Keller Brothers," L. 
and J. Keller, commenced business. They had a store 
and a mill. The first year the amount of business 
transacted was about $7,000. It increased year by 
year until it reached $133,000. Their place of business 
is now occupied by "Craig & Kurtz," the house being 
called "Hardware, Furniture & Merchandise Co." 
Amount of business in 1899, $50,000. Expecting to 
reach $100,000 in 1900. Have shipped in one season 
two thousand bushels of huckleberries. The industries 
here are: I. A curl grass factory, said to be the 
only one in the State. The native grass is twisted 
and curled into a form to be used in making mat- 
tresses. 2. A pickle factory, J. Nichols, Manager, 
started about 1890. Some 25,000 bushels of cu- 
cumbers used in a season. 3. A broom factory, to be 
changed into a different factory. 4. A sugar beet 
factory in near prospect. Seven thousand acres de- 
sired in an area with a radius of forty-five miles. 5. 
North Judson Brewery. 

North Judson has four physicians : J. F. Noland, 
W. A. Noland, P. C. Enllerth, C. Waddell; 
and one lawyer, S. Bybee. It has three drug 
stores, seven business houses, two hotels. The 
brick school house, two stories and basement, 
built in 1896, cost $12,000. The churches are four: 
Catholic, Lutheran, M. E. and United Brethren. Pop- 
ulation one thousand ; some estimate at twelve hun- 
dred. 



TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 273 

Besides the Pan Handle railroad, the Chicago & 
Erie passes through North Judson, and also the Indi- 
ana, Illinois & Iowa, giving good railroad facilities 
in different directions. Incorporated some ten or 
twelve years ago. 

It is located on sections 17 and 16, township 32, 
range 3. 

San Pierre. Population 300. — The station and town 
bearing the above name has had an existence about 
forty-five years. It contains three stores and a few 
other business houses. It has four churches : a Roman 
Catholic, a Lutheran, a Methodist Episcopal, and an 
"Evangelical Association" church. 

A brick and stone school house for 1899. Con- 
tracted to be built for $4,224. 

The town is not specially growing. Location, north- 
east quarter of section 29, township 32, range 4. 

Next in size to North Judson among the towns of 
Starke, and next in enterprise and growth, is Ham- 
let. For some time it was only a quiet little hamlet 
and a station on the Fort Wayne railroad, but the 
Indiana, Illinois & Iowa road lately went through it 
to South Bend, and this seems to give it new life. 
The population is now estimated at four hundred. It 
is at the center of section 24, township 34, range 2, 
six miles from Knox. 

Grover Town, on the Fort Wayne road, has not 
made as much advance in the last five years as has 
Hamlet. It is on the northeast quarter of section 
27, township 34, range 1. Number of inhabitants 
about two hundred. It has a United Brethren church, 
a school house, and business houses. 

Ora, in section 32, township 32, range I, on the Chi- 
cago & Erie road, and close to the south line of the 



274 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

county, is a young and growing village, with, perhaps, 
two hundred inhabitants. 

Between Ora and North Judson are two stations, 
Aldine and Alida, making nine stations in Starke. 



Lifl^H COUNTY. 

INDIANA, 1890. 

T.H.Bal]., 




COUNTY 



ffiVillage 

S «|N e w t o n i c o u n\t ysj 

RANGE 9 &\ RANGE 8 H^gg^ | RANGE 7 WEST OF 2° PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 

LAKE COUNTY'S FIRST COUNTY SEAT. 

On Colton's Map of Indiana, compiled from "au- 
thentic sources," published in 1853, among other 
towns located upon it may be found these five : Chi- 
cago, Indiana City, Liverpool, City West, and ivlichi- 
gan City. Indiana City was at the old mouth of the 
Calumet, on the shore of Lake Michigan, town lots 
having been there laid out and that name having been 
given to the place by a company of men from Colum- 
bus, Ohio. No evidence has been found that it ever 
had any inhabitants ; but the statement may be taken 
as quite reliable, that in 1841 the place was sold for 
fourteen thousand dollars. It seems to have been made 
a city on paper, in 1836. 

In this same year, or perhaps in 1835, John C. Davis 
and Henry Frederickson, of Philadelphia, and John 
B. Chapman called a Western man, laid out some town 
lots for a new city on Deep River, near its union 
with the Calumet, and to this was given the aspiring 
name of Liverpool. In 1836, for three days, lots were 
sold, and the sales amounted to sixteen thousand 
dollars. A deed of nine of these city lots, written 
by John B. Niles, then an attorney, acknowledged 
before Judge Samuel C. Sample, was preserved for 



276 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

many years by John Wood the builder of Wood's Mill 
on Deep River. He and a friend bought lots amount- 
ing to two thousand dollars. As early as 1835 or 1834 
a ferry boat had been placed on Deep River at this 
locality, the "pole bridge" in Porter County being 
then the place for crossing the Calumet. 

In the year 1836, George Earle, of Falmouth, Eng- 
land, came with his family from Philadelphia, settled 
at this new city of Liverpool, and, having quite an 
amount of means, soon became the owner of a large 
part of the surrounding territory. His large owner- 
ship of so much ol Lake County, then wild land, laid 
the foundation for the large wealth of his son, John 
G. Earle, now of Chicago. For some time the stage 
line, started in 1833 along the beach of Lake Michi- 
gan from Detroit to Chicago, had its route of travel 
changed to pass through Liverpool, perhaps, in 1836 ; 
but, probably finding too much deep sand to pass 
through, the stage line of travel was put back upon 
the more northern road. 

This Liverpool on Deep River, some four miles 
from Lake Michigan and three from the Porter 
County line, became the county seat of the new Lake 
County in 1839. It would seem almost needless to 
state that it did not there long remain. 

It is worthy of note that the land, on which this 
first county seat was laid out, was an Indian reserva- 
tion, or perhaps, more accurately, was land selected 
under an Indian float. "In the Recorder's office is 
a copy of the patent, signed by Andrew Jackson, Pres- 
ident of the United States, June 16, 1836, conveying 
to John B. Chapman section 24, township 36, range 
8, being 603.60 acres, in accordance with the third ar- 
ticle of the treaty made on the Tippecanoe River with 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 277 

the chiefs and warriors of the Pottawatomies in 1832." 

This same John B. Chapman also bought of Re-se- 
mo-jan, or Parish written also Parrish, as the deed 
says, 'once a chief but now an Indian of the Pottawa- 
tomies," section 18, township 36, range 7, for which 
he paid eight hundred dollars. It would have cost him 
from the United States Government just the same. 
These sections, with some ten others, including the 
localities where are now Lake Station and Hobart, 
came into the hands of the final proprietor of Liver- 
pool. 

In Lake County are now two incorporated cities 
Hammond and East Chicago, and four incorporated 
towns, Crown Point, the county seat, Whiting, Ho- 
bart, and Lowell; also twenty-two other towns and 
villages ; making in all twenty-eight, and with two 
post-office stations not yet exactly villages, Lottsville 
and Winfield, making thirty town localities for Lake 
County. 

Brief notices of these are here given. The order is 
one of convenience rather than of age, size, or com- 
parative importance. 

1. Dyer. Population 400. — A settlement was quite 
early made near the Illinois line on Thorn Creek, 
where is now the town of Dyer. In 1838 a tavern 
or hotel, the first "State Line House," was there. In 
1855, there were two places where travellers could 
stay, and a few other houses. In 1857 was opened 
a store, and village life commenced. 

About 1855, A. N. Hart, who had been a book pub- 
lisher at Philadelphia, settled with his family, three 
sons and one daughter and his wife, on the State 
line at Dyer. His enterprise and business operations 
contributed largely to the building up of the town. 



278 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



His business manager for many years was Henry 
J. Prier, a young man of large business qualifications, 
of integrity, and fidelity. His management was ex- 
cellent. He afterwards was connected with the Mc- 
Cormick Company in the sale of agricultural imple- 
ments, and is now doing business in the same line 
at Indianapolis, where he has a pleasant residence 
with his wife and two daughters just east of the city 
limits. 

A. N. Hart, besides carrying on through others a 
large business in Lake County, for some years was 
engaged in real estate business in Chicago. He had 
entered and purchased a large amount of what was 
called swamp land, east of Dyer and elsewhere in the 
county. In 1892 he held some fifteen thousand acres 
and its estimated value was one-half million of dol- 
lars. One thousand acres of it was sold in 1891 or 
1892 for one hundred thousand dollars. A big ditch 
leading out of Dyer, extending five miles to the Calu- 
met River, is known as the Hart Ditch, and it quite 
effectually drained what was once called Lake George, 
lying between Dyer and Hartsdale and Schererville. 

Adding much to the business life of Dyer were also 
the Davis families, from England, settling later, one 
of the three brothers, George F. Davis, becoming one 
of the large stock raisers of the county. 

In 1898 was erected a large, substantial and fine 
looking brick school house, with two stories and 
a basement. There are two church buildings; one 
a large Roman Catholic ; the other, a small, neat Pro- 
testant church. 

There are two quite large stores, one is a brick 
building owned by L. Keilman &• Son ; the other is a 
frame building, proprietor A. W. Stommel. 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 279 

The great industry is the creamery, commenced in 
1893. In 1899 the average amount of butter was 
about four thousand pounds a month, the average 
price about twenty cents a pound, and there was 
paid to the farmers for milk an average of one thou- 
sand dollars each month. 

Dyer has had many years a steam flouring mill, but 
it is not doing so much work as in former years. 

This has been a large shipping point, situated on 
what is called the Joliet Cut Off, connecting with the 
Michigan Central at Lake Station. The Elgin Belt 
Line also now runs parallel with the Cut Off from 
Joliet to Griffith, and then passing east to Hobart. 

2. Schererville. Population estimated at 250. — Near 
the eastern limit of the southern ridge of sand that ex- 
tends out from Dyer into Lake County, on a slightly 
curving road that marks the line, to some, extent, of 
the old Sac Trail, is the village that bears the name 
of one of its early settlers. Along the wagon road, 
along that slightly curving ridge of sand that seems 
once to have been washed by the waters of Lake 
Michigan, thousands of emigrants have passed, on 
their way to the westward. This was for many years 
the great thoroughfare for western travel. Coming 
from the eastward through La Porte and Valparaiso 
then on the line of the old Sac Trail, crossing Deep 
River at Wood's Mill, now Woodvale, and then pass- 
ing Wiggins Point, now Merrillville and going out 
of Indiana at Dyer, the lines of white covered wag- 
ons passed on to Joliet. Only those along that road, 
which was four miles north of Crown Point, had much 
idea of the amount of travel that passed over it. 

In 1866 village life at Schererville commenced, and 
for a time its growth was rapid. It now has two 



280 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

stores, a large, two story brick school house, and a 
large Roman Catholic church building. Sixty fam- 
ilies are connected with this church. 

3. St. Johns, or St. John. Population estimated 250. 
— The post-office department name for this place is 
"Saint John." In the county usage is divided. Some 
write St. John and some St. Johns. For euphony's sake 
the added s seems desirable. Southeast from Dyer four 
and a half miles village life commenced about 1846. 
Like Schererville, it is a Roman 'Catholic town. It has 
a large brick church, and had, about 1870, the largest 
Sabbath morning congregation in the county. It is 
near where the first German immigrant in the county 
settled, John Hack, and near where was erected in 
1843 the first chapel. 

The leading business men here are, Keilman, near 
the church, and Gerlach, near the station. Both 
of these men have done a large amount of business. 

A large creamery has for several years been in suc- 
cessful operation changing milk into 1 excellent butter. 
St. Johns is distant from Crown Point six miles. 

4. Hanover Center, population about 50 commenced 
village life in 1855. H. C. Beckman opened here a 
quite large store, but afterward removed two miles 
west. There is still a store here; a large church, 
(known as the Church of St. Martin, connected with 
which are five acres of land and a cemetery, also a 
good parsonage), is a center of religious life in Han- 
over township ; a school house is near ; and other 
buildings belonging to a village, help to keep up civil 
and social life. 

5. Brunswick, population about 65, two miles from 
Hanover Center and ten from Crown Point, and one 
from the Illinois line, began to be a business center 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 281 

when a store was established there in 1858. For 
many years H. C. Beckman carried on here a large 
business, for a country store, having bought in a 
single day three thousand and seven hundred eggs 
and about three hundred pounds of butter. After his 
death, in 1894, his son, John N. Beckman, continued 
the same business, both father and son having been for 
some years interested also in raising Jersey cattle and 
in other home pursuits. 

6. Klaasville, population about 50, some twelve miles 
from Crown Point, is a true Lake County village on 
the Grand Prairie of Illinois. It is a half-mile or less 
from the State line, and is on a prairie eminence from 
which a view can be obtained as far as the eye can 
reach, over that broad prairie that extends to the 
Mississippi River. H. Klaas settled there in 1850, a 
solitary German for a time. And as other families set- 
tled around him, and school and church life com- 
menced, the locality became Klaasville. 

These three places, Hanover Center, Brunswick, 
and Klaasville, are on no railroad, and their growth 
is slow. 

7. Creston, population about 75, is on the Monon 
line of railroad, one mile south from Red Cedar Lake, 
and one-half mile west of the early center, where, in 
1850 or earlier, village life commenced with a store, 
a postornce, a blacksmith shop, and a school house. 
At that school house the Cedar Lake Sunday School 
and Cedar Lake church held their meetings for some 
years, the postoffice also bearing the same name, Ce- 
dar Lake. There were several families on their farms 
within the distance of a mile, but no compact village. 
At the railroad station, now called Creston, are two 
stores, a church, and a good school house. There are 



282 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

near the station, about eighteen families. The fam- 
ilies of this community are largely connected by blood 
relationship and marriage, being descendants of the 
large Taylor and Edgerton families that were pioneers 
in 1836 on the east side of the lake. Some grain is 
bought at Creston for shipment and there is a hay 
barn where large amounts of hay have been bought, 
pressed, and from which it has been sent to the great 
markets of the country. John Love ships the hay, and 
A. D. Palmer and Cassius Taylor are the merchants. 

8. Shelby. Population 250. — In July, 1886 there was 
laid off into streets, avenues, and town lots, by a sur- 
veyor, under the direction of William R. Shelby, Presi- 
dent of the Lake Agricultural Company, the south- 
western quarter of section 28, township 32, range 8, 
and ten acres joining this on the northeast and fifteen 
acres of section 33, on the southeast, and the whole 
was called "The Village of Shelby." But village 
life, several years before, or soon after 1882, had 
already commenced, and the "Big House" was built, 
ice houses were put up on the river, the south adja- 
cent area being then called Water Valley, and a large 
boarding house was opened by the Fuller family. 
Slowly for a time, in the last few years more rapidly, 
improvements were made and new families came in ; 
and now Shelby has a large hotel building, two stores, 
also the Fuller Hotel, and a good school house with 
two rooms and two teachers. Hay, gathering mush- 
rooms, milk, putting up tortoises, ice, have been the 
paying industries, and now has commenced sugar- 
beet culture. 

9. Le Roy. Population 100. — The railroad station 
bearing this smooth-sounding name is about six miles 
southeast from Crown Point. It was started as a 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 283 

shipping point when the Cincinnati Air Line, now 
called Pan Handle or Pennsylvania Line went through 
Lake County in 1865, and a good shipping point it 
has proved to be. While supporting only three stores 
and containing about one hundred inhabitants, it 
has a good brick school house, two good church 
buildings, one Methodist, one United Presbyterian, 
maintains two good Sunday schools, has no saloon, 
and there were shipped from August, 1898 to August, 
1899, fully four thousand tons of hay and a large 
amount of grain. Love Brothers alone ship over 
three thousand tons of hay. Le Roy has been growing 
in the last few years and it is surrounded by a grow- 
ing hay and grain region. 

10. Merrillville, population 100, at first called Cen- 
terville, was one of the early villages of Lake County. 
Started as a center of settlement, and so called Cen- 
terville, by a few families who settled on and around 
the old Indian village locality known as Mc-Gwinns, 
among these, the Zuvers, Pierce, Glazier, Saxton and 
Merrill families, and J. Wiggins without a family, it 
received its later name from the Merrill families, who 
soon became prominent in the growth of the village. 
From Wiggins, who made his claim where the Indian 
dancing floor and burial ground were, which became 
soon the home of the family of Ebenezer Saxton, the 
woodland grove was called Wiggins' Point. This lone 
man died in the summer of that very sickly season, 
the year 1838, and his name has not been perpetuated. 
A few yet living have heard of Wiggins' Point. 

The growth of the early Centerville was slow. When 
the railroads came they passed west of it, and north 
of it ; but at length its citizens determined to make 
a neat town of it without a railroad. A good two 



284 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

story brick school house was built, and then a brick 
church, and some dwelling houses of better style than 
the first ones, houses of modern style, were erected, 
a cheese factory was established, and with one store, 
one hotel, and a food-mill, containing now thirty fam- 
ilies, Merrillville has become one of the substantial 
inland towns of the county. In school, Sunday school, 
and church life, its citizens take good rank. A maca- 
dam road now passes through it from Crown Point, 
through Ainsworth and Hobart and Lake Station, 
to the beach of Lake Michigan. 

11. Palmer, population 85, is on the Chicago & Erie 
Railway, one mile from the Porter County line. It 
received its name from Dennis Palmer, who was a 
farmer in that locality for many years, now residing 
in the town. It became a station and so village life 
began in 1882. 

It has a good brick school house, no church build- 
ing, two stores, and is a place of some business. 

12. Woodvale, population 50, became the early home 
of John Wood and family his own date being 1835, the 
family a year or two afterward. In 1837, a saw-mill 
was put in operation and in 1838 the grist-mill com- 
menced its busy work, the only one for very many 
miles in any direction. This mill did for many years 
a large custom work. It finally became a large mer- 
chant flour mill. 

Members of the Wood family have been for these 
sixty-three years the principal inhabitants of what may 
be called the family villa. Some of the second and 
third generations are carrying on the mill and other 
business interests now. The brick residence of Na- 
than Wood, the oldest son of John Wood, .was con- 
sidered to be in 1872 "one of the most city-like dwell- 






VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 285 

ing houses in the county." The Wood family came 
from Massachusetts and brought with them New Eng- 
land intelligence and cultivation. Mrs. Wood, a very 
estimable woman, was a cousin of that Sarah Hall, 
who became the noted missionary Mrs. Boardman, 
and afterward the second Mrs. Judson. 

The quarter section of land on which was the mill 
seat, the northeast of section 21, township 35, range 
7, was patented as an Indian reservation to Quashma, 
and cost Mr. Wood one thousand dollars. He re- 
fused to lay out and sell any town lots, designing in 
that way to keep out saloons, and in that he was in his 
lifetime very successful. 

13. Ainsworth, on the Grand Trunk railway, be- 
coming a station in 1880, is quite a shipping point for 
milk, has some other business interests, with a popula- 
tion now of about fifty, fourteen families. It has a 
school house but no church. 

14. Griffith. Population estimated 100. — This new 
railroad town had a good start. Founded by Jay Dwig- 
gins & Company, then of Chicago, where the Chicago 
& Erie, the Grand Trunk, the Joliet Cut Off, and the 
Elgin Belt Line roads all crossed, the grandest rail- 
road crossing in Lake County, about half-way be- 
tween Crown Point and Hammond and at the time of 
a great real estate "boom" as it was called, in the 
north part of the county, some two years before the 
Columbus Exposition of 1892 and 1893, it had for two 
of three years a remarkable growth. Dwelling houses, 
business houses, factory buildings were erected, and it 
seemed for a time that it would become a city indeed. 
Work commenced in some of the factories, furnishing 
employment for many persons ; two church congre- 
gations were organized and two Sunday schools, one a 



286 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Methodist and one Baptist, a Good Templars' Lodge 
was started, hundreds of people were there, and the 
prospect for permanency was promising. But some 
disappointments began to come; the large works 
stopped; something evidently clogged the wheels of 
progress ; and soon many of the inhabitants scattered 
almost as rapidly as they came. 

To the staid dwellers at Crown Point, who had seen 
their town growing for fifty years with the slow 
growth of a burr oak, a gnarled one even and knotty, 
it seemed astonishing how, for a time, Griffith did 
grow; it seemed almost magical how large buildings 
went up and people came flocking in ; but the growth 
was more like a vine than an oak, more like Jonah's 
gourd vine "which came up in a night, and perished 
in a night." It seemed for some years that Griffith 
was almost deserted, but those connected with work 
on the railroads remained, a few other families re- 
mained, and for the last two years the place has as- 
sumed a more cheerful and promising aspect. There 
are two or three small stores ; the school is prosper- 
ous ; its location is good ; and it may yet become quite 
a town. 

15. Ross. — Population 75. As a village Ross 
dates from 1857. It is a station on the Joliet Cut Off 
road. An area of land consisting of forty acres on the 
south side of the railroad was laid out into town lots. 
For many years it was the residence of Amos Hornor, 
Esq., one of the noted pioneers of Lake County, 
whose early claim was in the edge of the West Creek 
woodland, known for some years as the Amos Hornor 
Point. At Ross also resided for a number of years, 
from i860 until his death at an advanced age, the 
Rev. George A. Woodbridge, a pioneer minister, one 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 287 

of the most thoroughly educated that Lake County 
has ever had, a native of Connecticut, a graduate of 
Yale College, the possessor of a large library, who 
first made his Lake County home on Eagle Creek 
Prairie, near the present village of Palmer, in 1839. 
One of the Haywood families and also the Holmes 
family, were residents at Ross for several years, and 
there a peculiar religious interest was awakened in 
1876, which will be elsewhere noticed. Yet while a 
place of note in the county it has never attained much 
size. It has one store, a school house, and a church 
building, and quite a number of dwelling houses, but 
is not a place of much business. Some descendants 
of the early families still remain and school and 
church life prosper. 

16. Highland. — Population 50, is on the grand sand 
ridge extending from Lansing, in Illinois, almost di- 
rectly east near to Hobart, and on the line of that 
early stage road that passed from Liverpool west- 
ward to Joliet and northward to Chicago. A few resi- 
dences were in pioneer times along that sand ridge 
and that road, but no village life commenced until 
the Erie and Chicago road established a station where 
the road builders cut through that broad ridge of 
sand (on the south of which was the Cady marsh and 
on the north the Calumet bottom lands or broad val- 
ley), in 1882. A store and postofrice, a good brick 
school house and two churches, twelve families, and a 
factory make the present village of Highland. It is 
distant from Hammond about five miles. Two miles 
north is Hessville, and in high water time the flood 
water of the Little Calumet covers nearly all the 
ground between. It is one broad sheet of water, like 
a clear, silvery lake. Highland, and the neighborhood 



288 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

east of it are now, in 1900, growing with much 
promise. 

17. Passing west from Highland three miles, hav- 
ing crossed the second cut in the sand ridge through 
which the Hart ditch has worn a deep gorge-like 
channel, one will find the line of settlement of the Hol- 
lander village fully commenced, a village of one street, 
four miles in length, along which reside sixty-four 
Hollander families ; and from the school house, post- 
office, and store in the center bearing the name of 
Minister, the whole line, four miles in length may be 
called the village of Munster. The founders of this 
Hollander settlement, Dingernon Jabray, with his 
family, three sons among his children, Antonie Bonev- 
man, his son-in-law, Eldest Munster, with two sons, 
Jacob and Antonie Munster, crossed the Atlantic in 
the summer of 1855, in the ship "Mississippi," landing 
at New York, and in August reached Lake County. 
The large Swets family and many others followed, un- 
til sixty or more families, with about one hundred 
and fifty children, now comprise this Hollander- 
American village of Munster. On the long street 
there is another store and, as a matter of course, a 
church. The building was erected about 1876. Value 
of church property, including parsonage, $1,500. It is 
a beautiful walk from Lansing, just over the State 
line, eastward to the school house, the broad sand 
ridge on the south, the rich Calumet valley on the 
north. This land the villagers cultivate, raising large 
crops of vegetables for the city markets. It is not a 
manufacturing nor a commercial, but an agricultural 
village. The passing stranger might well call it a 
"Happy Valley." Across this village street, one-half 
mile from the Illinois line, passes the "Monon" rail- 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 289 

road, making the third cut through this broad ridge 
of sand (a ridge covered with a growth of wood), and 
thus giving some railroad facilities without a regular 
station to these industrious and thrifty Hollanders. 

18. Hessville, population 80, on what is often 
called the Nickle Plate railroad, is on a broad belt 
and ridge of sand north of the Little Calumet. Joseph 
Hess, a German, settled on that locality in 1850, just 
as pioneer life was closing, but before railroad possi- 
bilities were imagined; before, long before, any one 
could have believed Hammond, East Chicago, and 
Whiting, to become realities before the nineteenth 
century closed. Its first half was closing then. Joseph 
Hess kept and raised cattle. He opened a store in 
1858, for the Michigan Central railroad had passed 
one mile north of him. Through deep sand for a mile 
he "carted" his goods, but not on a cart. Families 
gathered around him. In about twenty years his vil- 
lage contained twenty families. He was elected town- 
ship trustee of North township, which then ex- 
tended to Porter County north of the Little 
Calumet, and became the head man of that 
township, his little village its capital, his will con- 
trolling affairs almost as though he was a king. 
The families of the township were mostly German im- 
migrants, late arrivals, and as late as 1872 it was true, 
as was then written, "the most of North township is 
as yet sparsely inhabited." His office and his large 
control, Trustee Hess held for many years, until Ham- 
mond became cmite a little village, and then the influ- 
ence and importance of Hessville began to decline. 
It had a dangerous rival and was in a few years en- 
tirely eclipsed. When the young Hammond began to 
grow Hessville was a center of influence no more. In 



290 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

1872, in the school at Hessville ,a two-story house, 
there were some seventy pupils. The school declined, 
but still continues. Hessville still has a store. It is 
a station on the railroad, and several German families 
still there reside. The village is Lutheran. 

19. Lake Station, population 100, owes its exis- 
tence to the Michigan Central railroad. It is there- 
fore nearly fifty years old, and while for a time it was 
one of the great shipping points of the county, when 
there were only three, after other roads were built it 
lost its early importance and having no special in- 
terests to promote its growth it failed to make much 
growth. It has a good school house with two teach- 
ers, it has two church buildings, one Roman Catholic 
and the other Protestant, and one store. Some good 
families reside here. 

20. Miller's Station, population 80, on section 6, 
township 36, range 7, is a station on the Michigan 
Southern and Baltimore and Ohio roads, near the 
northeastern corner of Lake County. For many years 
its growth was very slow, putting up ice in the win- 
ter and shipping it in the summer having been its 
principal industry. It is one mile from Long Lake, 
a mile and a half from Lake Michigan, with large 
sand hills on the north. Df late years it has improved 
very much. A gravel road was made from Hobart 
through this village to Lake Michigan, a good church 
has been built and a good school house, and its in- 
telligent and enterprising merchant, C. F. Blank, has 
a large store and is prospering in his business. The 
village is mainly Swedish Lutheran. Some Germans, 
and some are Americans. All are true American 
citizens. Shipping sand from the .large banks nearby 
is a profitable industry. About a mile and a half south- 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 291 

west from Miller's Station, on the road to Tolleston, 
are the Etna Powder Works, on section 12, where 
several men find employment, and where some sad 
explosions have taken place. 

21. Tolleston, population 500. — This is a German 
Lutheran town, founded about 1857, on the Michigan 
Central and Fort Wayne roads, is due north from 
Crown Point twelve miles, but the distance by a 
wagon road is about sixteen miles. It has two school 
houses, one parochial and one public, a large Lutheran 
church and parsonage, a number of well-built dwel- 
ling houses, and some good-sized business houses. 
In 1872 the number of families of the Tolleston com- 
munity was eighty, and there was paid out to the 
workmen there about two thousand dollars each 
month. The number of families is now ninety-five, by 
actual count. 

22. Clarke in the southwest quarter of section 
31, township 37, range 8, on the Grand Calumet, near- 
ly two miles from Lake Michigan, is a station and vil- 
lage on the Fort Wayne railroad, one mile north and 
two miles west from Tolleston. Its main industry is 
putting up and shipping ice. From this place some 
interesting relics of the past were sent to Crown Point 
for Lake County's semicentennial celebration in 1884. 
consisting of two pieces of bone, about four inches 
in length, taken out in 1882, with an entire human 
skeleton, from about two feet beneath the surface 
where men commenced digging a well. The Clarke 
of 1872, dating as a village from 1858, had that year 
sixteen families, with a population of about sixty. It 
has made very little growth since. It now has twen- 
ty-three famlies. Population 105. 

Xorth of Clarke one mile is a station on the Mich- 



292 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

igan Southern road called Pine. • It was not mentioned 
among the villages of the county as like Edgemoor, 
on the lake shore three miles west, the resident fam- 
ilies are very few. At Edgemoor there is a small 
school, but none at Pine. 

The stations Lottaville and Winfield have been 
named as localities that might grow into villages, and 
another name may be added to these, Hartsdale, on 
the Joliet Cut Off, a railroad crossing near the pri- 
vate stopping place at the Hart farm, now in the hands 
of Mrs. Malcolm T. Hart, a resident of Crown Point. 
There are at Hartsdale three dwelling houses and a 
hay barn, the land around the station being a part of 
the large Hart estate.* 

There is a new station, and it may be said a village 
has commenced its growth, at the crossing, or south 
of the crossing, of the Joliet Cut Off and Nickle Plate 
road. It is called a Nickle Plate station and is named 
Glen Park. Its name indicates a Chicago origin, for 
Lake County people are not inclined to the name of 
Park. The populaton of this young town may be 
placed at 75. It has not, as yet, made much history. 

INCORPORATED TOWNS. 

Lowell — Population 1,300. History of location. 
According to the Claim Register, which is authority 
beyond question in Lake County, Samuel Halsted 
entered "Timber and Mill-seat," section 23, township 



* Malcolm T. Hart, a son of A. N. Hart, one of the 
wealthiest young men of the county, one of the most gen- 
tlemanly and refined in his bearing, died at his home in 
Crown Point, November 14, 1898. Besides his wife, he left 
a young daughter, into whose hands there comes large 
estate. 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 293 

33, range 9, making his claim in August, 1835, and 
registering it November 26, 1836. There is added in 
the Claim Register, 'This claim was sold to and reg- 
istered by J. P. Hoff, October 8, who has not complied 
with his contract, and therefore forfeits his claim to 
it." Under date of November 29, 1836, the second is : 
"Transferred to James M. Whitney and Mark Bur- 
roughs for $212." This mill-seat does not seem to 
have been purchased by any one at the land sale. In 
1848, A. R. Nichols and some others were found by 
Melvin A. Halsted as holders of the locality, then 
belonging to a canal company, the land then probably 
"State Land," and an attempt had been made by A. 
R. Nichols to build a mill-dam. Haskins and Hal- 
sted purchased the mill privilege, and in the winter 
of 1848 had in operation a saw-mill. In 1849 brick 
were made and a brick house erected, into which the 
Halsted family entered in 1850 as occupants and 
owners, and for fifty years that house has been the 
family home, when they have been in Lowell, one oc- 
cupant only, M. A. Halsted himself of his family, 
being now left. In 1850 he went to California, ob- 
tained gold, returned in 1852, bought out the interest 
of O. E. Haskin, erected a flouring mill, and in 1853 
laid out town lots and became the founder of Lowell. 
A small brick school house had been built in 1852, 
which was used also as a church. Village life had 
commenced. In 1856 the Baptist church was ibuilt. 
The structure was of brick, and was the result of the 
enterprise of M. A. Halsted, who was born in Rens- 
selaer County, New York, who became a member of 
the Baptist church in Dayton, Ohio, in the winter of 
1840 and 1841, who was married to Miss' M. C. Fos- 
ter in 1842, and became a resident of Lake County in 



294 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

1845. His career has been a remarkable one, in go- 
ing over the country, making money and laying it 
out in improvements, and by the citizens of Lowell 
and of Lake County his name cannot be forgotten. 
He is an aged man now. 

About 1853 J- Thorn built near the grist-mill a 
small hotel and also started Lowell's first store. Aibout 
four years afterwards William Sigler opened a store 
and not long after the Viant store was built. Inhab- 
itants and improvements soon made Lowell a town. 
In 1869 and 1870 other church bulidings were erected 
and there are now four buildings, Baptist, Methodist 
Episcopal, "Christian," and Roman Catholic. In 
1872 Lowell had the largest and best school building 
in the county, a commodious, two-story brick edifice, 
costing with the furniture, $8,000. At the same time 
the largest other building in the county was then to 
be found in Lowell, an $8,000 brick building, three 
stories in height, eighty feet long by fifty feet wide, 
designed for a factory. M. A. Halsted, then town- 
ship trustee, superintended the construction of both 
these buildings. There were then in Lowell one hun- 
dred and six families. There are now about three 
hundred. There are of school children three hundred 
and seventy-two. 

There was a Good Templars' lodge with one hun- 
dred and sixty members, and a Grange of Patrons of 
Husbandry, with eighty members. For some years 
Lowell was the strongest temperance town in the 
county. It is located in the heart of the best farm- 
ing region in the county. 

A few years ago a fire consumed a number of the 
older business houses, but the work of rebuilding 
commenced, and there are now solid business blocks, 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 295 

halls for different societies, and on new streets, 
many fine dwelling houses. It is the principal agricul- 
tural business town of Lake County. 

Hobart, population 1,500. — This now important 
town was founded by George Earle, who gave up his 
town of Liverpool after the final location of the coun- 
ty-seat at Crown Point, and built a dwelling house 
and erected a grist-mill and soon started village life 
where Hobart is now. As a town it dates from 1849. 
House and mill building at Hobart commenced in 
1845. The dam was completed and a saw-mill com- 
menced work in 1846. A grist-mill soon was added, 
and the Earle family removed from Liverpool in 1847. 
Town lots were laid out in 1848. 

The growth for a time was slow. In 1854 the 
Pittsburg and Fort Wayne railroad came through 
Hobart and as a railroad town it soon increased in 
business and population. In 1872 it contained ninecy- 
five families, Lowell having at the same time one hun- 
dred and six. It has now a few more families than 
Lowell. As the growth of Hobart has been promoted 
largely by the clay industry, and that will be men- 
tioned in another chapter, it need not be inserted here. 
The churches of the town are : Methodist Episcopal, 
Congregational, Unitarian, German Lutheran, Swed- 
ish Lutheran, Roman Catholic, German Methodist 
Episcopal, and Swedish Methodist. There is a large 
school building for a graded school, the yard shaded 
with trees of native growth. In the north part of the 
town are many fine forest trees, and a quite retired 
street of good family residences. Besides the Fort 
Wayne, the "Nickel Plate" road passes through the 
tOvvn, and along the southern border passes the Elgin 
Belt Line. 



296 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



While Hobart is a pleasant and a prosperous 
town and some of its inhabitants are good, Christian 
people, it is not noted for any careful observance of the 
Christian Sabbath. Its record rather is for a non-ob- 
servance of that day religiously. A fair illustration is 
the following, taken from a published notice of a game 
of baseball to be played at Hobart by the Naval Re- 
serves of Chicago at 2:30 p. m., admission rates, 15 
cents for men, but the advertisement says : "This will 
be ladies' day and they will be admitted to the grounds 
free." The game to be on "Sunday," the word well 
displayed, "May 20, 1900." It is to be hoped that the 
ladies, the real ladies of Hobart, did not feel highly 
complimented by this advertisement. Public notice 
has this year been given that the owners of Monon 
Park, which for many summers has been a place for 
constant Sabbath desecration, (have discontinued Sun- 
day excursions. And even in Paris, it has been pub- 
lished, the strictly American part of the Exposition of 
1900 is not to be opened on Sunday. By the observ- 
ance of this day, or by its open desecration, it is read- 
ily shown what nations, towns, and familes are. 

We make our own history. Hobart is not the only 
one of our towns whose historic record, on the ob- 
servance of Sunday, in regard to both business and 
amusment, is not highly creditable ; but some of these 
towns are particular to hold their ball games, to which 
they also invite the young ladies, on Saturdays and 
not on Sundays. That Epworth League and Chris- 
tian Endeavor girls would go out on Sundays to ball 
games is not to be supposed. 

Whiting, population 2,600. — In 1889 some land was 
bought according to report, for $1,000 an acre, and 
some nine hundred men were employed in erecting 






VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 297 

what, it was claimed, would be the largest oil refinery 
in the land, the number of brick to be required in its 
construction was estimated at 20,000,000. This was the 
beginning of the work of the Standard Oil Company 
in Lake County. In 1890 about seventy-five votes 
were cast in what is now the town of Whiting. In 
1900 nearly 1,500 votes are cast. The town was in- 
corporated in 1895. 

At Whiting there are five churches, St. John's 
Lutheran, Epworth Methodist Episcopal, Plymouth 
Congregational, Sacred Heart Catholic, St. Paul's 
German Evangelical. There are of lodges eleven va- 
rieties, lettered or named thus : Golden Star D. of 
R, K. and L. of H., A. O. U. W., I. O. O. 
F., K. of P., A. O. H., K. O. T. M., C. 
K. of St. John Com. No. 241., Rathbone Sisters, 
Whiting Lodge No. 613. F. and A. M., and Daugh- 
ters of Liberty.* 

The oil refining business has brought in many in- 
habitants and the growth of the town has been re- 
markable. Its location is on quite level land, along 
the first low ridge of sand that here skirts the beach 
of Lake Michigan. Westward to South Chicago are 
no large sand hills ; nor an;y eastward for a number of 
miles. Southward also the land is quite level to East 
Chicago and to the Calumet. Southeastward the 
town touches Berry Lake, which is not large, and 
southw r estw r ard Lake George. The growth is mainly 
westward, between 119th street of Chicago and Lake 
Michigan. Some local estimates place the population 
at 6,000. 

Crown Point, population 2,300. — When ''Lake 



Whiting News, February 3, 1900. 



298 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



County," i872 l was written, evidence was found that 
William Butler, in June or July of 1834, made four 
claims where is now the town of Crown Point, one 
for himself, one for his brother, E. P. Butler, one for 
George Wells, and one for Theodore Wells. Also 
that he had some logs put up for the bodies of two or 
more cabins. He made claims but no settlement. On 
the last day of October, 1834, Solon Robinson, with 
his family, reached the same locality, made a claim the 
next day, and had a log cabin ready for occupancy 
very soon. He was greeted the day after his arrival 
by Henry Wells and Luman A. Fowler, and they, in 
two or three days, bought claims, and "two log cabin 
bodies built by one Huntley," (these are Solon Rob- 
inson's own words), on the south half of section 8, 
paying for these claims $50. That these were two of 
William Butler's claims seems to be certain, and he 
must have employed Huntley to pile up the logs 
ready for roofing. Soon, on this section 8, was a ham- 
let; for in mid-winter some other families came from 
Jennings County, from which Solon Robinson also 
came, and united with him in founding a town. These 
hamlet families, on sections 5 and 8, were : The Robin- 
son family, seven in number, three of them young 
men, members of the family for the winter ; the Clark 
family, also seven in number; and the two Holton 
families, also numibe'ing seven. Thus there were 
twenty-one in all, forming a community by them- 
selves, three married men and four married women, 
one a widow, five young men and two young ladies, 
four boys and three girls, manhood and womanhood, 
young men, maidens, and little children, the proper 
variety for a colony or a young city. Additional fam- 
ilies soon came in 1835 and 1836, and in 1837 was 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 299 

erected a log building for a court house and the place, 
now called Lake Court House, was becoming a vil- 
lage. Its history is lengthy, and a few points only can 
be given. It had a new store, a hotel, a postoffice, 
and in 1840 it became the county-seat. Its name was 
now changed to Crown Point. Slowly but steadily 
one improvement followed another. Brick were made 
in 1841, and the stick and clay chimneys began to dis- 
appear. A physician, a lawyer, and a minister came ; 
new stores were opened; and schools and churches 
were organized and buildings for their use erected. 
By the year 1850 Crown Point had become a town, 
but an inland town, where quite a large trade in some 
lines was carried on, it continued to be, for fifteen 
more years, increasing slowly in population, feeling 
something of the influence of the railroad life that was 
crowding growth elsewhere, but enjoying not much 
of its advantages. At length, in 1865, a railroad 
came, and lines of iron rails and of telegraphic wires 
connected it with the busy, outside world. A new 
stage of growth commenced. New schools were 
opened, additional business houses started up, in 
June, 1868, the town was incorporated, in 1869 a fire 
company was organized, and large business blocks of 
brick and stone and mortar soon appeared. In one 
of these, erected in 1873, was Cheshire Hall, now 
called Music Hall. Of this Mrs. Belle Wheeler, wife 
of the editor of the Lake County Star, a granddaugh- 
ter of Solon Robinson, wrote; as part of a semi-cen- 
tennial paper for 1884: "It has been the scene of 
many happy gatherings, and its audiences have lis- 
tened to some of the finest lectures of these times, 
the most notable of which were those given under the 
auspices of the Lecture Club, of which Mrs. J. 



300 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

W. Youche was secretary, and from whose books 
we glean the following: There were given lec- 
tures by Prof. Swing, Rev. Dr. Thomas, Will 
Carleton, Phoebe Cousins, Fanny McCartney, 
Rev. Mercer, Gen. Kilpatrick, Mrs. Livermore, 
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. An- 
thony, Dr. Brook Herford, Benj. F. Taylor, Mrs. 
Dunn, a series of five lectures 'by James K. Applebee, 
reading by Laura K. Dainty, entertainments by the 
Hutchinson family, and others." "From its platform 
we have also often heard our own home talent, Rev. 
Mr. Ball, Judge Field, and many others." 

After the brick blocks and society halls came 
banks, and electric lights, and telephones, and water- 
works, and paved streets, and a street-sweeper, and 
the different indications of having reached city life. 
In Crown Point the first Masonic lodge, Lake Lodge, 
No. 157, commenced with six members, dispensation 
dated November 11, 1853, charter May 24, 1854. Now 
there are lodges of Odd Fellows, of Independent Or- 
der of Foresters of America, Modern Woodmen of 
America, Knights of Pythias, Knights of Tented Mac- 
cabees, Catholic Order of Foresters, Daughters of 
Rebecca, Eastern Star, National Union; also John 
Wheeler Post of G. A. R., and a Womans' Relief 
Corps. Also not secret a Womans' Study Club, a 
Pleasure Club, a Housekeepers' Club a Girls' Club a 
Musical Clubj_ a Commercial Club, a Shooting Club, 
two or three missionary societies, a W. C. T. U., an 
Epworth League Chapter, and a Christian Endeavor 
Society. The life of Crown Point as a railroad town 
began in the spring of 1865, when freight and passen- 
ger trains passed through to Chicago. One of the 
new sights then on the streets was a dray, Crown 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 801 

Point's first dray. This was a regular, two-wheel, one- 
horse, city dray, such as were common then and had 
been for many years in the cities. It was owned and 
driven by Robert Wood, who had lately returned from 
the army, and was looking out for business. He was 
kind, accommodating, and reliable; his vehicle could 
be seen somewhere on the street during business 
hours, and for convenience in moving many articles 
of freight that one-horse dray has not since been 
equaled. After a time it gave place to the large 
dray wagons drawn by two horses. In the spring of 
1869 another new sight appeared. Velocipedes, the 
forerunners of the bicycles, began to be seen on the 
streets of Crown Point. After them the bicycles came, 
such strange vehicles as at first they seemed to be, 
of which hundreds have probably been used in these 
latter years by men and women, by girls and boys. 
Postmasters at Crown Point since 1836, from the 
Lake Count Star : Solon Robinson, Henry D. Pal- 
mer, H. S. Pelton, J. P. Smith, D. K. Pettibone, Major 
Allman, Charles E. Allman, J. H. Luther, Joseph 
Jackson, Henry Wells, W. G. McGlashon, George 
Willey, Z. P. Farley, H. J. SKoulters, W. T. Horine, 
J. P. Merrill, J. J. Wheeler, A. A. Maynard, F. E. 
Farley. Nineteen incumbents in sixty-three years. 
The father of the present postmaster and his grand- 
father, Joseph Jackson, both held the office before 
him. The churches of Crown Point are : Presbyte- 
rian, Methodist Episcopal, "Reformed" or Evangeli- 
cal, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Free Methodist, Ger- 
man Methodist Episcopal, and German Evangelical. 
Also a society of "Believers" occupying a hall. Com- 
mencing town life about the same time as did the coun- 
ty-seat of Jasper, only thirty-six miles away as a crow 



302 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

flies, but separated for many years by an impassable 
river and marsh, Crown Point and Rensselaer have 
kept along in growth quite well together, Crown 
Point enjoying railroad facilities several years before 
Rensselaer and so having now a more city-like appear- 
ance, and this year, according to the figures given by 
the school superintendent of Jasper, Crown Point has 
a few more children of school age, yet one hunderd 
more of inhabitants has been assigned to Rensselaer. 
It is claimed that Crown Point has more miles of 
paved streets than any other town of its size in Indi- 
ana. Like Rensselaer Crown Point has some quite 
wealthy citizens, and like its southern sister county- 
seat, many talented lawyers, and citizens who have 
gained honors in political life; among these, two 
former State senators, Hon. J. W. Youche and Hon. 
J. Kopelke, and a former congressman, Hon. Thomas 
J. Wood. 

Hammond, population 12,000. — This growing 
young city was known in 1872 as the State Line 
Slaughter House. The sand ridges and marshes of 
that part of Lake County did not attract pioneer fam- 
ilies. In 185 1 the Hohman family settled on the north 
side of the Calumet where is now North Harmmond, 
and on the south side, probably soon after, the Sohl 
family, consisting then of William Sohl, his wife, Mrs. 
Louisa T. Sohl, and some children. The third settler 
was J. Drecker, about 1858. Then came the Dutcher, 
dayman, Booth, Miller, Goodman, Olendorf, and 
Wolf families, and some short time before 1872, about 
1869, a company of men from the East opened there 
a slaughter house. Of this company George H. Ham- 
mond of Detroit was the capitalist, and when the 
place became a village, in 1873, ms name was given to 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 303 

it. In 1872 there was one store, and also there was a 
boarding house for workmen. Eighteen men were 
at that time employed, and three or four car loads of 
beef w r ere sent off each day for the Boston market. 
What a city Hammond would in a few years become 
was not then foreseen, and, as being then almost out 
of the civilized world, there was no effort made to set 
an exemplary example, and for quite a little time the 
slaughter house w^ork went on, seven days in the 
week, no Sunday being observed, no Sabbath being 
kept. But as growth soon began, a village started, 
and then a town grew up, and schools, and Sunday 
schools, and churches came rapidly into existence, 
and customs and manners changed. In 1879, Porter B. 
Towle, from Massachusetts, came to the new town 
of Hammond, and he re-organized the village Sun- 
day school that was commenced as early as 1872, he 
gave literary and moral lectures, and in connection 
with a few others, especially one of his brothers, 
started cottage prayer meetings, and gave a new 
tone to the Hammond society. Hammond grew and 
kept growing, at first slowly, aftenvard rapidly ; Sun- 
day schools, churches, and societies w r ere organized, 
and now, counting it thirty years of age, it takes good 
rank with the two large places of northwestern Indi- 
ana, Michigan City and La Porte, which have had 
nearly seventy years in which to grow. 

Hammond now has fifteen churches, counting a 
Jewish or Hebrew congregation as one, and a church 
is not necessarily Christian. These are : Methodist 
Episcopal, Congregational, three Roman Catholic, one 
of these German, one Irish, and one Polander, Ger- 
man Methodist, German Reformed, two Baptist, 
"Christian/' Presbyterian. Episcopalian, two Luth- 



304 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

eran, and one Hebrew, called "Anshey Agudos 
Achim." Of social organizations, lodges and asso- 
ciations, there are in Hammond thirty-one making 
with the churches and Sunday schools sixty or more 
different gatherings of various kinds for Hammond's 
increasing thousands. Of these thousands, as will be 
seen in the chapter on industries, more than three 
thousand are persons employed in the five leading 
manufacturing and business interests of Hammond. 
In the city are soone good business blocks, some sub- 
stantial church buildings of brick and stone, some 
well-constructed school buildings. It has two' banks, 
paved streets as a matter of course for a city joining 
Chicago, water 4 works, an artesian well and also water 
from Lake Michigan, and two electric railways, one 
leading to East Chicago and Whiting, the other to 
Roby and South Chicago. Its industries will be men- 
tioned in another chapter. It is still the home of M. 
M. Towle, one of the principal founders of the town, 
a man of large enterprise, of Porter B. Towle, editor 
of a daily paper, and in it resides Hon. C. F. Griffin, 
formerly secretary of state of Indiana. Just outside 
of Hammond, that is, lying north of Wolf Lake, is 
Roby, the noted, or perhaps, notorious, race course, 
The following extracts from a Chicago paper, con- 
necting Chicago and Roby history together, will be 
all that is needful to give of a portion of history not 
creditable to either Hammond or Lake County. The 
date of the extract is August, 1896: 

Time was when Chicago was a haven for race 
"fiends," as they are called. There is something sug- 
gestive in this word. Four years ago two race tracks, 
Harlem and Hawthorne, were playing the game al- 
ternately and making it continuous. In addition there 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 305 



were pool-rooms down town. Then came the fight 
against the tracks and the pool-rooms. Finally fol- 
lowed the establishment of the Roby track, over the 
Indiana border. Here it was intended to race all the 
year around by a system of subordination, which gave 
employment to many persons in the vicinity of the 
track at extraordinary wages. The enmity of the 
Lake County (Ind.) officials was met and conquered, 
and for three years the Roby track and its later mates 
enjoyed immunity from local interference. At the 
Indiana tracks the foreign book-^making, which was 
really a pool-room, was the profitable part of the busi- 
ness. It is only a few weeks since the Indiana courts 
after a prolonged litigation on the part of Gov. 
Matthews against the tracks, practically declared all 
the rights of the tracks forfeited, and they were closed. 
East Chicago. Population 2,700. — This young city 
like the original Chicago, has had a rapid growth. 
The Penman family, the first resident family, estab- 
lished a home here in 1888, and now the estimated 
population around them is 3,000. Very literally in 
1888 the place was "in the woods," marshes, under- 
brush, sand ridges, the characteristics of quite a part 
of North township, were then the natural features 
of the locality. Now there are various industries else- 
where named, long streets lined with city-like build- 
ings, a large graded school building, and a bank, and 
many stores and business houses. It has water works 
and electric lights. Its churches are: Congrega- 
tional, Methodist Episcopal, German Catholic, the 
St. Michael's Polish Catholic, and a Swedish Lutheran 
church. It has quite a number of social organiza- 
tions, lodges and clubs, in accordance with modern 



306 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



city life. Outside of the city limits and on the Calu- 
met are the large Grasselli Chemical Works. 
GROWTH OF LAKE COUNTY, 

Owing no doubt to its position, its proximity to 
Chicago, and, slightly, to some natural advantages, 
Lake County from 1880 to 1890, according to the 
Census reports, made more rapid growth than any 
other county in all Indiana. In 1880 Lake County 
as to population was the seventy-first in the State, 
only twenty-one counties having a less number of in- 
habitants. In 1890 it was the thirty-fifth in popula- 
tion, fifty-seven having less. Its increase in popula- 
tion was 8,795. I ts P er cent of increase was 58.28. The 
next largest per cent was 43.76. Porter County, in the 
same ten years, gained, in population only 825, and 
La Porte only 3,460, or 1.1,17 per cent. These, two 
counties are next nearest to Chicago. These are sOune 
stages of progress-: In Lake County in 1840, there 
was no church building. There, were a few log school 
houses. There were, two -or three Sunday schools. 
There was a Baptist church organization and perhaps 
three Methodist organizations. The population was 
1,468. In 1870, there were twenty church .buildings, 
ten -resident pastors, forty places for religious meet- 
ings, thirty Sunday schools, and the population was 
12,339. In 1890, there' were fifty-six church buildings, 
thirty-nine resident' ministers, forty-five Sunday 
schools, sixty places- for Sabbath meetings, and the 
population was 23,838. In respect -to growth', as it is 
a question of fact and' not of opinion, Lake may be 
called the "banner county" of Indiana. 

The following figures will show the growth of the 
six towns of Lake County, the population for 1880 
and 1890 having been taken from the Census reports, 



VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES. 301 

and for 1900, toeing* estimated from the public school 
enumeration, making allowances for the different va- 
rieties of population in the different towns : 

1880. 1890. 1900. 

Lowell 458 761 1,300 

Hobart 600 1,010 1,500 

Crown Point 1,708 1,907 2,300 

Whiting 115 1,408 2 600 

East Chicago 00 1,255 3>ooo 

Hammond 699 5,428 12,600 

The number of children, on which the estimate is 
based, is the following: Lowell, 372; Hobart, 439; 
Crown Point, 700 ; Whiting, 640 ; East Chicago', 876 ; 
Hammond. 3.621. To Whiting is assigned a popula- 
tion of more than four times its school enumeration. 
To the others about three and a half times the school 
enumeration. And that ratio is generally too large 
rather than too small. 



CHAPTER XX. 



VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER. 

Baillytown is not the name of a locality where 
American pioneers settled, as is Waverly, and as is 
Tassinong, but is the name given, probably by the 
earliest settlers, to a French and Indian trading post. 
It is claimed that in 1822, Joseph Bailly, a French fur 
buyer, who was in connection with Alexander Rob- 
inson in 1809 in the fur trade, opened a store and es- 
tablished a trading post on the Calumet River, four 
or five miles from the mouth of Fort Creek. His 
wife was an Ottowa Indian woman. They had four 
daughters and one son. The son died in 1827 when 
ten years of age, and at this time it is thought that the 
bereaved father erected a Roman Catholic chapel. 
At this locality Indians gathered to sell fur and pur- 
chase goods. 

In 1837 there was here quite a cluster of cabins, a 
building then understood to be a chapel, store rooms 
and out rooms for the family, and also for the Indi- 
ans who staid for days, perhaps sometimes for weeks. 
Considerable parties of them, on their ponies, would 
leave this place in the summer of 1837, pass through 
City West, go somewhere, the children of City West 
could only guess where, and return. 

Joseph Bailly made money, and it is said that in 



VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER. 309 

1834 he had some lots laid out in due city form so as 
to build up a town. But no American inhabitants 
came, the Indians that were there could not make 
a city, and in a few years the trader himself died. 
Some of the daughters married, 'but members of the 
family continued to reside there and the name yet 
remains. 

CITY WEST. 

Note. — This sketch was read some years ago at 
one of the anniversary meetings of the Lake County 
Old Settlers' Association, (by T. H. Ball, the title then 
being "My First Home in the West, or Old City 
West." As written for that occasion it is quite dif- 
ferent in form from what it would be if written now 
for this work. But the author hopes that no apology 
is really needed for inserting it here in its full form as 
it was then written and read. 

The village, for it was more than a hamlet, that bore 
this significant name, among the earliest of those 
commenced in the county of Porter, is recognized as 
having had a very short existence. 

Before proceeding to give what may now £>e rescued 
from oblivion of its actual history, I may be allowed to 
notice this question which some might ask, Why try 
to preserve any history of a place that was so short- 
lived ? As planned for a large Lake 'Michigan city, it 
proved to be a failure and not a success. Let then, the 
oblivion which it merits cover all its history. Or the 
question may be stated thus : Of what use so far as 
the objects of history are concerned can the records 
of this short-lived village be? The first question 
or the first form of the inquiry, may ibe answered by 
another question. Why do wealthy families, and 
sometimes families not abounding in wealth, often 



310 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

place in their burial grounds a costly slab or marble 
monument on which is engraved the name, perhaps 
the date also of the birth and of the death, of some 
little infant ? An answer to this question will suggest 
an answer to the other. The "little cottage girl" 
whom the poet Wordsworth met, herself but "eight 
years old," immortalized in his beautiful little poem, 
held as firmly to her relationship to her dead broth el- 
and sister as to her living ones. And surely no local 
history can be complete which treats of white man's 
occupancy ; that does not give soune account of at- 
tempted colonies and settlements and villages and 
towns and cities, as well as of those that succeeded 
and are in existence now. The pupils in our schools 
who have learned of Plymouth and of Boston Bay 
colonies in New England history, but who know 
nothing of Weston's Colony, commenced "in the sum- 
mer when nature laughed and the hillsides were gay 
with flowers, and the air sweet with the songs of 
birds," as a chronicler has said, giving the contrast 
between it and old Plymouth, — these have missed one 
of the grandest lessons taught by those old colonial 
settlements. 

And those who have had no means of examining 
the records of the Spanish attempt to found a colony 
in Virginia, on the Rappahannock called the first 
European settlement in Virginia, made in the fall and 
winter of 1570, have missed one grand mental picture, 
which would have shown them Melendez, "the founder 
of Saint Augustine, the 'butcher of Ribault, the chosen 
commander of the Invincible Armada, as he stood sur- 
rounded by his grim warriors, planting the standard 
of Spain on the banks of the Potomac." 

But the question in its other form suggests the in- 



VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER. 811 

quiry. What are the real objects, the purposes, for 
which human history is, or ought to be written? Is 
it not largely to teach lessons, to impart instruction, 
to furnish warnings, to offer encouragements, to 
stimulate to new and- praiseworthy undertakings, and 
to furnish some guide that may secure others against 
failure? And. if so, the history of failures as well as 
of successes may be equally valuable. Chicago, Indi- 
ana City, City West, Michigan City, all started some 
fifty years ago (when this was written) with the hope 
of becoming large, lake shore cities, great marts of 
trade, with fine harbors, abundance of shipping, large 
warehouses, centers of commerce where would be 
bought and sold large amounts of costly meichan- 
dise. One succeeded, beyond, doubtless, the most 
sanguine hopes of its founders. Two failed entirely 
and are not. The fourth succeeded, slowly for a 
time, but at length reasonably well. 

I trust that I need no further apology for placing 
in this form the following particulars in regard to a 
"city" that was but is not. Troja fait," was written 
of an ancient town. 

In the year 1836 four men, — Morse, : — Hobart, — 
Bigelow, and L. Bradley, adventurers in the better 
sense of that word, having some means at their com- 
mand, selected the mouth of Fort Creek in Porter 
County on the shore of Lake Michigan, about ten 
miles west from Michigan City, and about the same 
distance from Indiana City in Lake County, as an 
inviting place for. founding a city that might com- 
pete with the then young Chicago and the still 
younger Michigan City in securing the yet undevel- 
oped commerce of Lake Michigan. Of loaded freight 
trains on railroads thev seem to have scarcelv dreamed. 



312 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

The selection was not badly made. The sand bluffs 
along that portion of the beach were large and grand. 
Fort Creek entered the lake along a bed nearly paral- 
lel for a little way with the lake shore. It was not 
a large stream of water, but it was not far southward 
to the Calumet River which it was designed to connect 
with Fort Creek by means of a canal. Actual sur- 
veys and soundings made in 1837 indicated that the 
natural advantages for a harbor were superior there to 
the locality chosen for Michigan City. In the fall of 
1836 and the winter following quite a portion of land 
was laid out in city lots, Hervey Ball from Massachu- 
setts looking for a location in the West, acting as 
surveyor and civil engineer. A saw-mill was erected 
by one of the company, probably. Morse, a dam hav- 
ing 'been placed across the creek, buildings were 
erected, the large pine trees that grew on the bluffs, 
and other varieties of timber growing on the level 
and lowland, furnishing an abundance of good lum- 
ber, and village life in that winter commenced. 

When the spring of 1837 opened the place began to 
grow rapidly as a new western town. Commodious 
and quite costly houses were erected ; a large building 
was put up for a store and warehouse; hotels were 
built ready for being opened to accommodate the 
travelling public ; a survey for a harbor was made, and 
an appropriation from Congress was expected to en- 
able the proprietors to perform the needful work ; and 
everything for a time promised an abundant success. 
The saw-mill furnished a good supply of lumber and 
the carpenters were busy putting the lumber into the 
form of houses. 

There came from Massachusetts in the spring the 
two families of Hervey Ball and Amsi L. Ainsworth, 



VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER. 3l3 

other families came in, and quite a little community 
was formed. How many families there were in all 
cannot now be ascertained; but the following names 
are preserved in memory : Ainsworth, Bigelow, Brad- 
ley, Ball, Chisleu, Ellis, Hobart, Morse, Muzzall, 
Sweet, Wheeler, and four other families at least are 
remembered whose names cannot be recalled. There 
were several unmarried young men, and in all there 
must have been some sixteen, possibly twenty, fam- 
ilies.* 

It is astonishing through how much one may live 
in a short period of time. The writer of this spent here 
some seven months of the year 1837, visiting occasion- 
ally the beautiful wilds around the Red Cedar Lake 
where was afterwards his western home; but here he 
took his first and ever to be remembered lessons in 
hunting; here he learned the grandeur of Lake Michi- 
gan in its native wildness and its varied moods ; here 
he first learned the meaning of the solitudes of na- 
ture; here he learned something of Indian life, see- 
ing the travelling parties almost every week on their 
ponies, going to and from the neighboring Bailly- 
town, and visiting at their wigwams the hunting 
parties that came from Green Bay in their large, birch- 
bark canoes, and camped for weeks near the growing 
village; here he and others formed acquaintances 
destined to exert an influence througih life; here he 
first saw an Indian burial place and saw Indians 
mourning over their buried dead ; here he learned the 



* Of that family bearing the name of Muzzall, having 
come from England through Canada, descendants are now 
living in Crown Point and Merrillville; and of those young 
men one is now living in Hammond, L. W. Thompson, 
born in 1814, and at the date of this note, November, 1899, 
eighty-five years of age. 



814 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

intense sadness and loneliness of death in a pioneer 
settlement and the loneliness of a pioneer burial in 
the wilderness ; and here he learned how colonies 
were planted in American wilds. Those months seem 
now. like years of ordinary life. 

Some incidents besides those named may also be 
mentioned. Gardens were made in May and some 
of the families obtained their supply of potatoes from 
the lake shore, at the mouth of the creek. Some lake 
sloop had evidently been storm-tossed, perhaps, for 
a time, stranded. And there was deposited for the 
benefit of the inhabitants a part of the cargo in the 
form of sound and good Irish potatoes. 

No formal school' was opened in 1837, but some 
of the children carried on their studies in their homes. 
No Sabbath meetings were (held, and when the little 
community assembled to bury their few dead, in a 
lone spot, selected for that purpose, there was no 
minister in attendance to speak of the great hopes 
of the future. Yet some were there who knew those 
great hopes and who were accustomed to pray. They 
were not heathen burials. On a sand knoll, between 
the village and the lake, on the bank of. the creek, 
there was an Indian burial ground of some size, the 
marks or inscriptions on the head-boards seeming 
to have been painted with Indian puccoon root. Here 
the villagers did not bury; this sacred spot they did 
not disturb. Near this, in the summer and fall, some 
Indian encampments were held ; the Indians being 
quiet, peaceable hunting parties, one party at least 
having come down Lake Michigan from Green Bay, 
if the information imparted to the villagers was cor- 
rect. 

One day there came from Michigan City along the 



VILLAGES ANJO TOWNS OF PORTER. 315 



beach of the lake a party of boys, white boys, on their 
ponies, who rode around City West in quite gallant 
style, showing off themselves and their ponies, ap- 
pearing to be members of the wealthier families of 
that lake town. Where they dined that day cannot 
be recorded, but in the afternoon they returned to 
their own city and the streets of City West were again 
quiet. A ride of twenty miles along the beautiful 
sandy beach must have been an enjoyable experience 
for stylish boys well mounted on ponies. There was 
quite a number of these city boys, and some of them 
may yet be living. Frequently the Indian parties 
came on good ponies from Bailly-town, men, women 
and children, passing along the west street of the vil- 
lage, then going by their burial place to the lake shore, 
sometimes going eastward to the city, sometimes west- 
ward. In a few days they would return. To the white 
women and children the squaws and pappooses on the 
ponies were always objects of much interest. 

The young society of City West was not large in 
numbers, but very select. Of young ladies proper 
there were not more than five or six. Of young misses 
there were, of the "first set." five. Three of these are 
now living,* having been very active and influential 
women in their spheres of life, one in Illinois, one in 
Indiana, and one in Alabama, all now about sixty 
years of age. 

The most lovely one of these, probably the young- 
est, beautiful as well as lovely, t>ore the given name of 
Mary. All five were quite polished, cultivated, good- 
looking, dressed well, were accustomed to the refine- 



* "Now" means when this sketch was read at the Old 
Settlers' Association. 



316 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

ments of life, and formed a very small, but a truly 
city-like group of girls. There were several (boys 
and other children in the village, but only a few boys 
connected with this small group of girls. 

One morning the usual quiet life of the commu- 
nity was broken by the announcement that Daniel 
Webster was about to enter City West in a two- 
horse carriage, having turned aside from the stage 
road to visit our little growing city. Of course the 
Whig portion of the community was quite excited. 
A good breakfast was prepared at the Morse resi- 
dence; and after breakfast, as the citizens, men and 
boys, had gathered near the house — girls did not go 
out in those days as they do now — the great "ex- 
pounder of the Constitution" came out to be intro- 
duced to the inhabitants of City West. There he stood 
before us, the great lawyer, statesman, and orator, 
tall in form, massive in intellect, the man of whom 
we had heard and read, but whom we had not expected 
to see standing upon our sandy soil. He soon took 
his seat again in the coach and passed out from us 
on to Michigan City. A few more reminiscences. 

Three varieties of wild fruit were found that year 
at City West. These were, winter green berries, so 
abundant in May, so fragrant, so delicious ; huckle- 
berries, blue and black, low hush and high ibush, 
growing on the flats and on the high sand hills, that 
overlooked so many miles of that blue lake, ripening 
from the ist of July till frost came, ready to be gath- 
ered by the quart or by* the bushel ; and the sand-hill 
cherries, as we named them, ripening in August, not 
so abundant, but a good, edible fruit. Gathering ber- 
ries for their own use formed a healthful and pleasant 
occupation for the women and children in that ever 



VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER. 317 

memorable summer. Toward the cool of the evening, 
as the sun would 'be, apparently going' down into the 
lake, these women and children found a delightful 
walk on the hard, smooth, clean sand of the wave- 
washed beach, from the mouth of the creek westward. 
And the little children and the young misses took de- 
light in running barefooted in the very edge of the 
dancing waves, avoiding the large ones, letting the 
ripples flow over their white feet and ankles. (Little 
girls' dresses came to their ankles then. They did not 
stop as now, at the knees). At other times they 
would visit the great "blow-outs," climbing up and 
running down in that which was so soft and yielding, 
in which they could play, on which they could recline, 
and have on hands and face and clothes no stain. 
What could be cleaner, except the water, than that 
white and black Lake Michigan sand! Some, who 
loved the magnificence of nature, would climb to the 
very top of some of those high bluffs and look out 
upon the broad expanse of water, sometimes seeing 
the white sail of a distant vessel, and enjoying the 
grandeur of that wide sweep of lake and shore line, 
that satisfied the range of the keenest vision. 

But this pleasantly situated little town never be- 
came a city only in name. It was two or three years 
too late in starting. The financial crash of 1837, that 
swept over the country, did not spare even this little 
place. Congress made no appropriation for a harbor, 
although Daniel Webster had taken breakfast there. 
It would take money to stock the large store house 
with goods, money to dig the contemplated canal 
from the Calumet to the lake, money to make a city. 
And the proprietors were not millionaires. They had 
built fine dwelling houses, they had spent thousands 



318 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

of dollars, they had secured nothing" that would bring 
in an income. They must give up their enterprise. 
The crash had come. They began to scatter. Before 
1837 had ended some sought new beginnings else- 
where. Others followed the same example in 1838. 
Some went further west, some found homes in La 
Porte County, some in Lake, engaging in various 
pursuits, some went further from the lake into Porter 
County; and in 1839 few if any were left in the once 
promising and pleasant little city. 

In 1840, in company with a young friend, I visited 
the place, mainly to obtain wild fruit. We went from 
the Red Cedar Lake. Toward nightfall we drove into 
the village. The houses were there but no inhabitants. 
We called at the large Exchange hotel, but no one 
came to welcome us or attend to our wants. We had 
come prepared for that. We had our choice not only 
of rooms but of houses for that night. We chose a 
house, prepared our supper, and arranged our lodg- 
ing place.. We had no fear of being disturbed that 
night. The next day we gathered our fruit, bathed 
in Lake Michigan, and went out from that solitude, 
and returned to our homes. 

The next that we beard, about the unfortunate City 
West was a report that a fire had swept over it and 
that all the houses had gone into ashes It failed to 
become a city for the lack of men and 1 means, mainly 
for the want of money. But for the needs of those 
years it was too near to Michigan City. There was 
then no need for a harbor between Chicago and Mich- 
igan City. Now there is one between, and there will 
probably yet be two. But for a new City West there 
seems to be no hope. The early City West has gone. 
Its years were few ; its life was brief and bright, for 



VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER; 810 

some very bright ; its decline and its end soon came j 
and from it Ave may learn to be careful how and where 
we expend, in founding cities, any large amount of 
means. Had the amounts expended in 1836 and 1837 
been laid out where is Chicago now, some of those 
that were children in the young City West might have 
been millionaires in Chicago before now\ Circum- 
stances combine to make some rich and to leave 
others stranded on the sands of poverty. And those 
circumstances cannot 'by the most sagacious always 
be foreseen. 

Young city on the lake shore; 

Thou art gone forever more ; 

Yet thy homes were fair and bright, 

Seen in childhood's rosy light. 



W-WEkLY. In live year 1834,- John I. Foster, an ear- 
ly settler in the north part of Porter County, laid out 
a tract of .land- into town lots and gave to the town 
which he hoped to see, the name of YVaverly. A few 
families, connected by the ties of blood and marriage, 
built log cabins on some of these lots and soon there 
was a little cluster of six houses. These were the 
families of Jacob Beck, John I. Foster, and William- 
Gossett, whose wives were sisters, also of William 
Frame and the families of Sparks, Warnick, and Mc- 
Coy, two at these sons-in-law. Six connected families, 
founded the young town. 

It was on the Calumet, about one mile and a half 
above Baillytown, a name to which the earliest settlers 
gave, as near as might be, the French pronunciation. 
It was nearly four miles from the mouth of Fort 
Creek on the lake shore. Thomas' saw-mill was near, 
at about the present Chesterton ; but the authority is 



320 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

good for stating that the houses of Waverly were all 
of logs. No business appeared in prospeot; the in- 
habitants did not hear the whistles of (the coming age 
of steam ; they must get food from' the earth ; and so 
the families went further south into the county, open- 
ed farms, built mills, and Waverly ceased to be. In 
1837 it had the appearance of an old, almost of a de- 
serted village. According to records concerning an 
election ordered to be held in what became Porter 
County, the order issuing from the La Porte County 
commissioner this was already quite a noted place 
early in 1835, ^ or m March of that year the election 
was to be held "at the town of Waverly." 

Note. Most of the/ a(bove statements in regard to 
Waverly are from the clear memory of Mrs. Sarah J. 
Stonex, of Le Roy, in Lake County, who was a daugh- 
ter of that pioneer, Jacob Beck, and who remembers 
well that village home of her childhood. She says that 
after City West was abandoned she, with some others, 
enterprising children probably and adventurous like 
herself, went over to City West and examined the 
houses, and they found one, counting closets and all, 
which was divided off into twenty-two rooms. This 
must have been the "Exchange" or the Bigelow hotel. 
She also says that she was at City West at the time of 
the burial of the young child that died there. This 
information, with other items of interest recorded in 
other places, was obtained in an interview with Mrs. 
Stonex November 7, 1899. Strange that a City West 
child and a Waverly child should have witnessed that 
frontier burial service, and find out that they both 
were there, after the passing away of sixty-two years ! 
It surely made a durable impression on the memory 
of each. Those two early towns of the county of 



VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER. 321 

Porter died young, as infants die ; but the recollections 
concerning each live, as Christians 'believe that infant 
spirits live. 

Xote 2. When Joseph Bailly died, the French 
trader and settler at Baillytown, his wife and daugh- 
ters were in Chicago, spending, according to their 
custom, much of the winter season there. His death 
was quite unexpected. An Indian runner was sent at 
once as messenger to Chicago, but, swift of foot as he 
was. before he could reach there and the women re- 
turn, it seemed needful that the body must be buried. 
There was no embalmer to take charge of it. One 
of the setters at Waverly, therefore, Jacob Beck, the 
father of Mrs. Stonex, prepared the body for burial, 
and the brief funeral services were held before the 
return of the wife and the daughters. 

Xote 3. All those who travelled on that early stage 
road that went by the Holmes' tavern and the "Old 
Maid's Hotel," knew the "pole bridge" across the 
Calumet. How many rods long it really was is not 
probably known by any one now, but to a child, a 
boy who had been accustomed to cross the long cov- 
ered bridge that spanned the Connecticut river at 
Springfield, it seemed long, and surely riot very se- 
cure. The most rapid and dangerous ride across it 
was probably made by a woman with a young child, 
the woman was driving a pair of horses, and shortly 
before reaching the bridge the horses had struck a 
hornet's nest, were frightened or stung, and began to 
run. The woman placed the child on the bottom of 
the wagon, put her feet on its clothing to keep it from 
being thrown out by the jolting of the wagon, an A 
those horses ran the entire length of the bridge before 
she could check them. It seemed sufficiently danger- 



322 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

ous to have horses walk over that bridge, and passen- 
gers liked to walk also rather than to ride across ; but 
to cross it with horses on the full run was a fearful 
risk. Providential protection seems often to be over 
children. 

TASSINONG. 

Although not in the same part of Porter County 
as the three early localities that have been noticed, 
Tassinong, already once named, seems properly 
among early pioneer settlements to stand on these 
pages next in order to Waverly. At some time and by 
some one, when and by whom no record has been 
found, some woodland in what became Morgan town- 
ship was named Tassinong Grove. The early set- 
tlers in 1834 seem to have found the name already 
there, the Indians claiming that it was old then. It 
has been conjectured that the French once had there 
a trading post, but no real evidence seems to have 
been found. The name for us is prehistoric, as it was 
found there by the pioneers. But old as is the name 
for the locality, the village that the white settlers es- 
tablished was not among the earliest business centers. 
No record of a store is found till about 1846. The 
earlier merchants were Harper, Stoddard, their build- 
ings made of logs, Unmgh, Eaton, McCarthy, and 
Rinker & Wright. In 1852 there were two 
stores, two blacksmith shops, a carpenter's shop, a 
tavern, and some shoe-makers' shops. About 1855 a 
church building was erected. The organization was 
Prebyterian. The postoffice dates from 1840. After 
the railroad life commenced and Kouts as a station 
and town was established, Tassinong as a village de- 
clined. It can scarcely be called a village now, al- 



VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER. 323 

though its life has been quite different from its early 
sisters, Waverly and City West. 

The living and growing towns of the present now 
claim attention. 

At the crossing of the Chicago and Erie and Pan- 
Handle railroads, about five miles east from the county 
line and two and a half south from Tassinong is Kouts, 
a railroad station and so a growing town. It has a large 
school house, 'two churches, one Roman Catholic, one 
"Christian" congregation, but the house built by the 
people and undenominational, and a number of stores 
and dwelling houses, some of these quite fine build- 
ings. Population unknown, probably 250. 

Hebron. Population 800. — The old Indian village 
near the southwest corner of Porter County, where 
the Bryant and Dinwiddie families and others were 
early settlers, has been named as Indian Town. Here 
was quite a community of pioneers but no actual town 
life commenced. About two miles north of the In- 
dian village, in 1844, some lots were laid out where 
is now the town of Hebron, and in 1846 the first store 
was opened by S. Alyea, and the second by William 
Sigler, which soon became the store of his two broth- 
ers, Eli and D. T. Sigler, known for many years as 
the Sigler store, and the building, on the corner of 
Sigler and Main streets, at the original "Corners" 
where north and south and east and west high- 
ways cross, is ; in the year 1899, being repaired 
and rebuilt to be the drug store of Miss Hattic 
Palmer, who for some years has been keeping a 
large drug store in Hebron. The town grew 
slowly. The railroad in 1865 gave it some on- 
ward impulses. In 1867 D. T. Sigler erected the 
first brick dwelling, and in 1875 the first brick busi- 



324 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

ness block was put up by "Sweeney & Son." Hebron 
has now a two-story brick school house. Cost, $8,000. 
It has several brick business houses. The churches 
are four : Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, United 
Presbyterian, and ''Christian." A church called 
"Union Mission" was organized in 1877 with eighty 
members. This organization, although in 1878 erect- 
ing a building at a cost, it is said, of about two thou- 
sand dollars, did not long continue; and in 1882, April 
26, a Congregational church was organized, with 
about forty members, these having been for the most 
part members of the Union Mission church. This 
organization also had quite a short life. So Hebron 
has five church buildings and only four congregations. 
Estimated population eight or nine hundred. Hebron 
has some good dwelling houses, and, having been 
located in a grove, many of the dooryards have shade 
trees of native growth, mainly oaks, which add to the 
beauty of this town. 

In Hebron is residing Mr. John Skelton, born in 
1821, becoming a resident of Hebron in 1865, when 
there were six houses on each side of the main street, 
counting the country tavern as one, who has one recol- 
lection which probably no man in Northwestern In- 
diana can share with him, few probably in the entire 
State. He remembers distinctly, athough only about 
four years of age, seeing General La Fayette at Tren- 
ton, N. J., when he was on his way to Boston to lay 
the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill monument. He 
was placed, as a little child eager to see, upon a slight 
elevation, and that noble and noted man was carefully 
pointed out to him. That he then and there saw La 
Fayette Mr. Skelton is sure there can be no mistake. 
Of places for holding large open air assemblages 



VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER. 325 

Hebron has an excellent one. It is a grove of native 
growth, having the shade of old oak trees, the open 
square adjoining the Methodist church toeing large 
enough to accommodate some thousands of people. 
A permanent stand has been there for some years and 
seats, fastened securely, and compactly arranged, 
sufficient to seat eight hundred. With a little addition 
to the seating capacity, when needful, a thousand per- 
sons can be grouped very conveniently in hearing of a 
good voice. This is the annual meeting place of the 
Old Peoples' Association of Hebron, and sometimes 
of the Dinwiddie Clan. It is also a place for other 
public gatherings. It is fortunate for a town to have 
such a roomy and convenient place almost in the heart 
of the religious and school life, for open air assem- 
blages. 

Boone Grove is the name of a station on the Erie 
road which has become a very pleasant village. As 
its name indicates it is in a grove, and the homes have 
the benefit of shade trees of native growth. It has 
one church, known as Disciple, or "Christian," and 
there is a neighborhood around the village of good 
Christian families where Sunday school life has long 
been maintained and church-going habits have been 
cultivated. The entire Boone Grove community is 
intelligent and prosperous.. 

Wheeler. Population 180.— Village life commenced 
quite early near the present railroad station and town 
called Wheeler. A church house was erected and the 
Baptists and Methodists both had church organiza- 
tions. It was on the edge of Twenty Mile Prairie and 
also close to Twenty Mile Grove. The Harris, Peak, 
and other families lived near. When the Fort Wayne 
railroad gave a station here, it added quite an element 



326 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

of life, and yet but little growth followed. The larger 
business here is shipping milk. The town has a school 
and one church. 

North from Valparaiso about ten miles, on the 
Michigan Southern and Michigan Central railroads, 
are three places near together, Chesterton, Hageman, 
and Porter; and a few miles west and south from 
these towns are the railroad stations of Crisman and 
McCool. A few miles northeast from Hageman, on 
the Michigan Central is Furnessville. A station on 
the Baltimore and Ohio and the Wabash is called 
Willow Creek, and one is on the Wabash, thirteen 
miles northward from Westville, called Crocker. These 
are the principal towns, villages, and stations of Por- 
ter County in 1900. One, Valparaiso, is a city; two, 
Hebron and Chesterton, are quite vigorous, substan- 
tial towns; Hageman, Kouts, and Wheeler, are, in 
size and business, probably next; and the others are 
small as yet, with the elements of business and town 
life. Porter is not a county of many towns, twelve, 
including stations, have been named, and there are 
some quite large country neighborhoods with social 
centers, a school house, a postoffice, or a church. 

Chesterton, is, next to the county seat, the largest 
place in the county. Village life commenced about 
1852. It is said that its population in two years num- 
bered 300, "most of whom were Irish." Its growth 
afterward was slow. In 1882 its population was said 
to be 600. It 1880 there was established at Chester- 
ton the Hillstrom Organ Factory. Proprietor, C. O. 
Hillstrom. This has been quite an industry. The first 
brick building in the town was erected in 1874. Since 
then many substantial buildings have been put up. 
As will be seen in the chapter on industries brick 



VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER. 327 

abound in this part of the country. The churches 
of Chesterton now are Methodist Episcopal, Swedish 
Methodist, Swedish Lutheran, German Lutheran, 
Congregational, and a Roman Catholic. The first 
Catholic church building was erected in J857. A brick 
church was built in 1876, and a few years later a par- 
sonage was added, making the value of the church 
property about sixteen thousand dollars. The Swed- 
ish Lutheran brick church of 1880 cost about five 
thousand dollars. The Swedish Methodist 'built in 
1880. The German Lutheran house, 1881, cost about 
two thousand dollars The Methodist church of 1863 
cost about the same amount. Present population 
about 1,200. 

The town called Hag'eman was commenced in 1872 
by Henry Hageman; the town lots were laid out by 
Surveyor William De Courcey in 1880. Its industry 
is brick-making. Population about 600. 

Furnessville, called at first Murray's Side Track, 
and then Morgan's Side Track, has not made much 
town growth. The first frame building was put up in 
1853 by Morgan, and the second was erected in 1855 
by E. L. Furness, who opened a store in his basement 
in 1856. 

VALPARAISO. 

In 1834 J. P. Ballard built the first house where is 
now the city of Valparaiso. This is one of the tradi- 
tional records. Others say that when the original town 
was laid out there was no building on that, and that 
building commenced by different persons in 1836. The 
first store was opened in December, 1836, by Jere- 
miah Hamel, the second by John Bishop, and the 
third by Dr. Seneca Ball. First postmaster, Ben- 



328 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

jamin McCarty. It was quite appropriate that 
he, as principal proprietor of the new county 
seat should be the first to hold this office, al- 
though he had not earned it in any way by residence 
there as had Solon Robinson, first postmaster at 
Crown Point. As it was with the other county seats, 
the business interests, the courts, the county officers, 
all required and produced some growth, but in those 
early years advance was not rapid. In 1850 it was in- 
corporated as a village. In 1865 ft became a city. 
It had at one time some manufacturing establishments, 
but these closed up, one after another, and the great 
financial support of the city is now the large Normal 
college. In Valparaiso are nine churches, and the 
buildings of most of them are massive brick struc- 
tures. These are: The Roman Catholic, the Luth- 
eran, trie T ' Christian," the Methodist Episcopal, the 
Presbyterian, the Baptist, the Mennomite, and the 
German "Reformed," and the Believers. In 1898 there 
were enumerated 1,595 school children, indicating at 
the most a population of about six thousand. The 
thousands of students at the Normal College each 
year are not a part of the real population. What the 
census enumerator will do with them this year remains 
to be seen. The more full detailed history of this town, 
extending over sixty-four years, can be found, up to 
1882, in the county history of Porter. Since that 
work was written some new factories have started, ad- 
ditional school buildings have been erected, much 
building has been done on College Hill, new 
family residences have been built, and a massive 
court house has been constructed. The loca- 
iion of Valparaiso is among some hills, on some 
heights, and in some valleys, while all our other towns 



VILLAGES AND TOWNS OF PORTER. 329 

are on quite level ground. Some enjoy hills and val- 
leys and town lots that can be terraced up, height 
above height, and others like to build on a table-land 
or a plain or in a valley. The hills of Valparaiso give 
mucfi" variety to the town. The north part of the city 
is on level land. It is almost needless to mention, in 
such a college town, and one with such large and well- 
conducted public and parochial schools, in a town so 
old and with so many wealthy families, water-works 
and telephones and electric lights. Without these in 
this day such a city would not be. The water supply 
is from Flint Lake, north of the city about three miles. 
The Grand Trunk road passes along the level land on 
the north edge of town ; the Fort Wayne and Nickle 
Plate, having crossed the Salt Creek Valley, pass 
along the south oT the town. 



CHAPTER XXL 



VILLAGES, TOWNS, AND CITIES OF LA 
PORTE COUNTY. 

I. Westville, as at first laid out into town lots 
was on the northwest quarter of section 29, in town- 
ship 36, range 4. Additions were afterwards made. 
The first permanent residence was built 'by Henly Cly- 
burn in 1836. The first store was in 1848, proprietors, 
John and William Cattron, D. M. Closser in 1849, 
opening a dry goods and grocery store In 1850 there 
was established a blacksmith shop. In 1853 the Louis- 
ville, New Albany and Salem railroad was completed. 
A depot was built and Westville became a railroad 
town. For a time it had quite a rapid growth, mills 
and factories were started. It was incorporated Sep- 
tember 9, 1864. In these later years it has declined 
rather than advanced. The churches are two : Meth- 
odist Episcopal and " Christian." It has had an ex- 
cellent public school ranking, at least for a time, with 
the schools at La Porte and Michigan City. Said 
General Packard in 1876: "Several years ago it was 
brought up to a high standard by Prof. J. G. Laird, 
and has successfully maintained it ever since." He 
also said that it "is recognized as one of the best not 
only in the county, but in all northern Indiana." Pro- 
fessor Laird was no ordinary teacher ; but the schools 



CITIES AND TOWNS. 3ol 



of the two cities of the county have made great ad- 
vance since his day, and the Westville school, excel- 
lent as it is, has hardly kept up with them. The popu- 
lation of Westville is now about 700. 

2. Otis, north of Westville four miles, was first 
called by the Michigan Southern railroad people New 
Salem, or Salem Crossing. The Louisville, New Al- 
bany, and Chicago road named it La Croix, and this 
name the firsf proprietor of the place, Solomon Tuck- 
er, adopted. Its settlement commenced in 1851. Its 
location is on the northwest quarter of section 5, 
township 36, range 4. After the number of inhabi- 
tants was sufficient to entitle them to give a name to 
their village, they discarded both the railroad names 
and called it Packard, in honor of their representative 
in Congress. But he suggested a change of name, 
and in 1872, it was named Otis. That name it still 
bears. Its first settler, in 185 1, was Matthias Seberger, 
who became station agent. The first store was open- 
ed in 1854 by George R. Selkirk, supposed to be of 
the Selkirk family, one of whose members gave the 
foundation for the story of Robinson Crusoe. Otis is 
now quite a little town, having a good school, a 
Polander Roman Catholic church built in 1872, and a 
Lutheran church erected in 1876. 

3. Holmesville, east of Otis, on the southeast 
quarter of section 4, township 36, range 4, "northeast 
corner/' dates, as a settled place, from 1833, when 
Jacob Bryant built a dwelling house and a saw-mill. 
After the location of the railroad in 1850, a small 
store building was erected, and in 1853 a warehouse. 
Some houses were built in 1856 and 1857, but it 
has not become much of a town. 

4. But the oldest place in New Durham Town- 



332 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

ship to be called at any time a town, is New Durham, 
on or near section 14, about three miles northeast of 
Westville. 

The first building was a log cabin in 1834 built by 
Leonard Woods. In 1835 there was a store. In 1837 
a hotel was started, and in 1838 a wagon factory and a 
blacksmith shop. So the village continued to. grow. 
In 1839 there was added a tailor's shop ; in 1843 a 
boot and shoe factory; in 1846 a physician; and in 
1847 was built a Methodist church, Rev. J. J. Cooper 
first pastor. In 1852 ,W. B. Webster made a "hun- 
dred and fourteen wagons and buggies and mounted 
three hundred steel plows."* In 1854 was built a 
frame school house, and still later one of brick. But 
in 1854 the postffioce was removed. 

'This was an indication of the decline of New 
Durham, and the railroad having reached Westville, 
the pioneer town of the township ceased to be a place 
of any importance. Many of its buildings have been 
moved away. Some of them have gone to W^estville, 
and some are used for farmhouses. 

'Though the town is gone, the rich lands of the 
prairie remain, a constant source of wealth." 

5. Callao, or Morgan Station, is on the Pittsburg, 
Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, described as "situ- 
ated in the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter 
of section" 2, township 34, range 4, laid out for a 
town in 1859 by W. A. Taylor. Village life com- 
menced, but much growth did not follow. 

6. Rozelle was laid out for a town at about the 
same time, or in 1858, by Joseph Unruh, on the New 
Albany road about a mile south of Wanatah, and on 



* General Packard. 



cities And towns. 333 



the northeast quarter of section 8, rownship 34 ,rarige 
4. It was too near Wanatah which soon took away 
all its village life. 

7. Wanatah, as a railroad station and town began 
to grow in 1857, just before the completion of the 
Fort Wayne road. Being on the crossing of two 
roads, it had the advantage of its two little sister vil- 
lages and soon grew away from them. Joseph L. 
Unruh removed his store there from Rozelle, and 
in 1867, built a flour mill, putting in '"'three run of 
stones," and in 1876 it was considered "one of the 
best flouring mills in the county." 

The McCurdy Hotel was built in 1865 by Frank 
McCurdy, was burned in January, 1875, was imme- 
diately rebuilt and called the Wanatah House. The 
"Enterprise" school house was built by a stock com- 
pany ?ti 1870, The stream that runs through the 
town was named, for some reason, Hog Creek, and 
south of Wanatah, in Dewey Township, in the Kan- 
kakee marsh, is Hog Island, on which was built the 
first school house of Dewey Township, in 1858. 

The church buildings now in Wanatah are German 
Lutheran, Catholic, German Evangelical, Methodist 
Episcopal, and "Christian." 

Population about six hundred. 

8. Hanna, population 300, like Wanatah, is on two 
railroads, and is, "geographically," that is, according 
to the land descriptions of Indiana, on section 8, 
township 34, range 3 west of the second principal 
meridian, which meridian corresponds to longitude 
86 degrees 28 minutes west froin Greenwich 

As a town the growth of Hanna commenced in 
1858. In 1865 George L. Dennison opened a store 
and became a grain buyer. For some years the 



334 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Methodists and Free Methodists held their meetings 
in the village school house, but now the town has 
church sittings. 

9, 10. Waterford and Beatty's Corners, are the 
names of localities that gave some promise of becom- 
ing towns in the earlier years of settlement, but like 
many others, not on railroad lines, they soon failed 
to grow. Ordinarily that which does not grow dies. 
These were in Coolspring Township, which abounded 
in small streams and mill-seats and mills. This 
township lying south from Michigan City was one of 
the wildest in the county, having a good supply, not 
only of deer and wild turkeys, but also bears. 

11. As early as 1833, the growth began of a village 
called at first Lakeport, but afterward Hudson, that 
"was once the rival of La Porte," and "a formidable 
one," says General Packard, "for the trade of the 
north part of the county." A school, a store, a black- 
smith's shop, a cooper's shop, and tavern started at 
once. 

In 1834 a steam saw-mill was built which imme- 
diately commenced work, and in 1835, ft seemed to be 
rapidly growing into a young city. There were two 
hotels, stages passed through the town, farmers came 
to sell produce and buy goods, and everything prom- 
ised commercial prosperity. 

In 1836 there was promise of a canal from Toledo 
in Ohio, to New Buffalo on Lake Michigan. "Hud- 
son was wild with excitement." The financial crash 
came, the bubble burst ; Hudson as a town went down, 
as did many others in the early years. 

12. Door Village is the name of a once quite pros- 
perous little town on Door Prairie, near the "Door," 
on the locality of which a cabin was built in 1830, 



CITIES AND TOWNS. 335 



and a second in 1832, and where in 1833 was erected 
a small frame Methodist church building. A store 
was opened the same year and a frame dwelling house 
built, a wagon shop also and a small hotel. In 1834 
a blacksmith shop was added, and in 1836 the town 
was formally laid out under the supervision of the 
County Commissioners. Various kinds of business 
started in this new town, even to establishments for 
manufacturing fanning mills and spinning wheels and 
threshing machines. It was for a time quite a rival of 
La Porte. Two good church buildings were erected, 
one Methodist one Baptist, where for some years large 
congregations gathered. But the railroads passed 
through La Porte, they did not touch Door Village. 
Business left and it declined. There is little trace there 
now of its former life. 

13, 14, 15. In Wills Township three villages were 
commenced in the pioneer times, before the railroad 
lines had indicated where the towns must finally be. 

These were called Boot Jack, Independence, and 
Puddletown. The last named was the name given to 
a little lake on the borders of which a settlement was 
made that became a hamlet but not a village. This 
lake is on section 9, in Wills Township. The village 
called Independence, also Sac Town, was on section 
28. township 37, range 1, and was laid out for a 
town in 1837, where it was expected a railroad would 
cross a canal, the lines of both having then been sur- 
veyed. Mills, stores, and shops, commenced busi- 
ness, but no railroad came and no canal, and the 
town of Independence disappeared as did the "visions 
of immense wealth" which the early settlers of Irn y 
dependence saw in their dreams.* 



* General Packard. 



336 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



The name Boot Jack was given, for what reason 
is now uncertain, to a settlement that became a ham- 
let with a store and a pioneer tavern, where in 1835 
George Hunt settled with a family of six sons, and 
where in that same year, an Indian by the name of 
Brice opened a little trading post. There is therj now 
no town, no village. This locality, section 6, is said 
to have been the first spot settled in Wills Township, 
the settlement having been commenced in 1830 by the 
Wills family, John Wills and three sons, Charles, 
Daniel, and John E. Wills. 

16. Corymbo is the name 01 another locality where 
in 1874 were twelve log and frame buildings, with only 
three then inhabited. This once little village was in 
Springfield Township, on section 18, township 38, 
range 3. 

1 7. Springville, named from a large spring of cold, 
pure water, was a village in 1834, having then a tavern, 
a store and a blacksmith shop. A boot and shoe fac- 
tory, a 'tannery, a furniture factory, and a mill after- 
ward increased the business of the place. 

Judah Learning, the founder, and first settler in 
the township, built 'the first cabin in 1831. Other 
early settlers were Abram Cormack and Daniel Grif- 
fin, and in 1832, Joseph Pagin and sons, John Brown, 
Charles Vail, John Hazleton, and Erastus Quivey. 
One-fourth of a mile east of this village in 1832 the 
first school house was built, Miss Emily Learning, 
teacher, Elder Silas Tucker taking charge of the 
school in 1834. At this school were held early Meth- 
odist and Baptist meetings. This neighborhood and 
township has been quite noted for mills, as there are 
many springs and streams. Some of these mills were 
built by Joseph Pagin, Charles Vail, David Pagin, 



CITIES AND TOWNS. 337 



Jacob Early, Erastus Quivey, and Abner Fravel. 
Springville at present has about 75 inhabitants. 

18. On the New Albany railroad, south of West- 
ville, is a station called Haskell, scarcely a town. 
Population perhaps 50. 

19. Bigelow, or Bigelow's Mills, was laid out as a 
town and a record was made of "twenty-eight blocks" 
in 1837. 

In 1848 "the town of Bigelow's Mills" by act of the 
Commissioners was "vacated." 

20. Union Mills. A house was built at this place 
in 1832. A grist-mill was built in 1837 and 1838. A 
record of "the village of Union Mills" was duly filed 
in December, 1849. ^ n ^38 there were in the village 
five log cabins. -In 1844 was built the Presbyterian 
church. The town grew, business houses and shops 
and offices were opened. In 1858 was built the Ad- 
vent church. In 1872 a railroad reached this growing 
town, and in 1874 the Baltimore & Ohio road came 
alongside of it, and a new impulse was thus given 
to Union Mills. The place is, according to the offi- 
cial record, "situated in the southeast corner of section 
8, and the southwest corner of section 9, in township 
35,," range 3. Present population about 200. 

21. About one mile from this town an effort had 
been made about the year 1836, to start a town to be 
called Belmont. A beginning was made, but the 
effort soon ceased. 

22. After the railroads went through there was laid 
out, a mile east of Union Mills, a railroad town called 
Wellsboro. This has been a growing place. The Chi- 
cago & Western Michigan crosses the Grand Trunk 
here, and makes quite a point for the exchange of pas- 
sengers. 



338 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

23. Kingsbury. Population 250. — Four miles east 
of Wellsboro on the Grand Trunk is one of the old 
towns of La Porte County. It was laid out in 1835. 
Jacob Early and Polaski King were two of the early 
merchants. In 1834 was built the first school house 
in the township, now Union, and on the same spot 
was afterwards built the Baptist church, probably in 
1852. About i860 was built a Methodist church, and 
in 1876 a German Lutheran. 

In 1873 a railroad touched the town and added to 
its business life. . Before this time a grist-mill con- 
tributed to the life of the place. The Wabash road has 
recently passed near the town, but has added little to 
its growth. 

24. Stillwell. Population estimated at 250.— The 
early Stillwell was about one mile northwest from the 
present station bearing this name, the name of an early 
settler given to the prairie here on which he settled. 
This station is at the crossing of the Grand Trunk and 
Lake Erie roads, on section 2^, township 36, range 
2, near the center of the center. It has one church 
building known as 'the "Friends" or Quaker church. 
No industries, but quite, a little railroad business. 

25. Mill Creek. Population estimated at 100.— No 
church buildings in the village, but the school house is 
used for church purposes on Sunday. This place is 
four and a half miles east of Stillwell and the pastor 
of the Friends' church there supplies here. 

Across the Kankakee River, southeastward from 
Mill Creek, a bridge was built by John Dunn in 1831 
or 1832. About 1846 it was rebuilt by Major John 
M. Lemon, who kept it as a toll bridge for some 
years. It was known as Lemon's bridge. Mill Creek 
is the name of a stream, formerly called Spring Run, 



CITIES AND TOWNS. 339 



on which was built an early saw-mill. A postoffice 
was established in 1876 near the creek and railroad 
crossing and named from the creek. Twenty-four 
years of village life, starting with a postoffice, has not 
produced much growth. 

26. In Kankakee township a village was laid out on 
the lands of Stephen G. Hunt and Hiram Onem and 
named Byron. It was on the northeast quarter of sec- 
tion 15, township 37, range 2. In 1835 a store build- 
ing was commenced, a postoffice located, and a school 
house and then a hotel and a ware house in the fol- 
lowing years were erected. Byron became a town 
of much trade It was on the highway from La Porte 
to South Bend. Says General Packard: "Before the 
Northern Indiana railroad was built, Byron was a 
town of much importance. Its trade was large. The 
travel through it was great, the merchants pros- 
pered. * * * The railroad killed it. Its streets 
are deserted. There is neither store, blacksmith's 
shop, or tavern within its limits." That was not the 
first place which a railroad has killed. 

2J. Rolling Prairie. — The land on which this town 
is located was purchased in 1832 by W. J. Walker, 
some pioneers or "squatters" having homes then upon 
it. In 1852 the Northern Indiana railroad reached 
that locality in January. A station was established 
and so a town sprang up. It was one mile north 
from Byron. The name, given by the owner of the 
land to this town was Portland, but the postoffice 
and station name is Rolling Prairie. 

28. A station called La Crosse, sixty-eight miles 
southeast from Chicago has been in existence now 
thirty-five years. Commenced in 1865, dating from 
the completion of the Pan Handle road as it now 



340 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

runs, its beginning was thirty-five years from 1830, 
so that its existence thus far measures one-half the 
period of white occupancy. Located within the upper 
portion of the Kankakee marsh, where what was the 
"Air Line," crossed the New Albany and Salem road, 
its outlook is still upon the broad, open marsh. But 
the ground around it is much drier now than it was 
thirty-five years ago. One more road also crosses 
here now, the Chicago and West Michigan, the cross- 
ing being twenty-two miles southwest from La Porte. 
As a station village there are ten families, but about 
twenty-five families are within three-quarters of a 
mile from the crossings. Of these ten families one 
is Roman Catholic, attending church two and a half 
miles north. Of the others, some are Lutheran, their 
church being distant about four miles. Some years 
ago a religious Protestant family, living a half mile 
west, Elias O shorn and wife and children, carried on 
a Sunday school and secured occasional preaching at 
their home, and the other families quite generally at- 
tended the services at this family church house. But 
the family removed and the school and the preaching 
ceased. Church privileges for Protestants now are 
at Wanatah, eight miles north, or at Kouts, seven 
miles west. . A large area of open marsh land, 
where cattle graze, and on which much, grass 
is cut for hay, extends on the south, east- 
ward and westward, to the Kankakee River, and the 
view over this wide, level sweep of green verdure is 
in mid-summer beautiful, the eyes resting at last on 
the line of far distant trees in their full leaf, which 
marks the course of the river. One opening only 
through these trees is visible, where in the south the 
New Albany road crosses the river. La Crosse is a 



CITIES AND TOWNS. 341 



shipping point for hay, and a corn crib some eighty 
feet in length indicates that corn is also brought here 
for shipment. One small store, "Hyatte & Mar- 
quardt, dealers in dry goods, groceries, and notions," 
supplies some of the family needs. 

Two or three miles south of La Crosse is Wilders, 
a station on the Chicago and Erie road, where the 
New Albany and Chicago and West Michigan roads 
cross, and south of which three or four families re- 
side. Wilders is not far from the river, on the south 
bank of which, along the Erie road and where the oil 
pipe lines cross the river, is a cluster of oil tanks, with 
a few families to look after the interests of the Stand- 
ard Oil Company, as the oil is on its way to Whiting. 
Wilders is in La Porte County, near its southwest 
corner. 

La Porte County, wealthy and populous as it has 
been in comparison with the other counties, has about 
fourteen living towns and villages, and these are not 
large nor are most of them very thriving. But it has 
two good, substantial cities, where railroads cross 
and manufactories flourish. Outside of these the 
county is largely agricultural with a wealthy farm- 
ing intelligent community. The county is not proba- 
bly much in advance of Lake now in population. 

LA PORTE. 

The city which bears this name, considered to be, 
for its location, one of the most beautiful in Indiana, 
consisted of two cabin homes in 1830. One was the 
home of Richard Harris, the other of George Thomas, 
Colonel W. A. Place assisting in building this cabin, 
and Wilson Malone lodging in it the first night (as 
it is claimed) that a white man slept where is now La 



342 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Porte. The families of these three men, R. Harris, 
G. Thomas, and W. Malone, constituted the hamlet, 
if such it might be called, at the close of 1832, Colonel 
Place having settled in October not far away. But, as 
1833 closed and 1834 opened, fifteen families, or at 
least fifteen houses were in the new county seat. 

The following is a record that may well be re- 
peated here: 

"John Walker, Walter Wilson, Hiram Todd, James 
Andrew, and AJbram Andrew, Jr., bought at the land 
sales at Logansport, Indiana, in the month of Octo- 
ber, 183 1, 400 acres of land, known as the 'Michigan 
Road Lands," with a view of laying out a town and 
making the county seat of La Porte County." Town 
lots were laid out in 1833 and it did become the county 
seat. Among the families, making the fifteen in 1834, 
were, in 1831, Joseph Pagin, on the east side of Deer 
Creek, Charles Frayel in 1832, and in 1832 and 1833, 
engaged in business, were John Allison, William Alli- 
son, Dr. Ball, Nelson Sandon, John B. Fravel, and 
Hiram Wheeler. In 1833 the United States govern- 
ment located a land office at La Porte, John M. Lemon 
Receiver, Major Robb, Register. 

The first hotels were kept by Blake and Lily. Early 
merchants were J. T. & W. Allison, and William 
Clement and Dr. Seneca Ball. A log school house 
was built in 1833. Improvements of various kinds 
went forward and other school buildings were erected. 
In 1835 La Porte was incorporated as a town with five 
districts or wards and five trustees were elected. The 
election certificate bearing date November 14, 1835 
was signed by William Dinwiddie, President, Wm. 
Allen, Clerk. In 1852 a population of five thousand be- 
ing found in the town limits, a city charter was 



CITIES AND TOWNS. 343 






granted and La Porte became a city. First Mayor, 
William J. Walker ; second, Benjamin Kress ; third, 
Frederick Me Cullum ; fourth, W. H. H. Whitehead ; 
and fifth, in 1861, Daniel Noyes. 

In 1856 a school building was erected in each ward 
of the city, four of these being built of brick, two 
stories each.. There were in those schools seven 
teachers : "R. M. Johnson, A. T. Bliss, Jasper Pack- 
ard, Miss O. M. Tibbits, Miss Emma Chandler, Miss 
M. A. Kent, and Mrs. Steele." Also Mrs. Packard. 

A high school department was soon organized with 
Jasper Packard as first teacher. 

The first Board of Trustees were, Gilbert Hatha- 
way, Amzi Clark, B. P. Walker, and the second were 
John B. Niles, James Moore, and Ferdinand Roberts. 

In 1864 was erected a large brick building for the 
city high school, and another very large one was add- 
ed in 1894, and with such men as they have had for 
trustees and with such teachers as have been placed in 
the schools, it is no wonder that it has been said that 
"the educational advantages of La Porte are of the 
highest order." It has been also said, but he may 
have been partial who said it, that "taken altogether. 
La Porte is unquestionably the handsomest city in 
Indiana." Its streets are wide and well shaded — un- 
fortunately sometimes for a stranger they do not 
run in the direction of the cardinal points of the com- 
pass — beautiful lakes, such as Clear Lake, Pine Lake, 
Stone Lake, are around it ; and its prairie and grove 
surroundings are among some of nature's choicest 
beauties. Yet truth to say, as its most partial in- 
habitants cannot fail to see, the beauty here in 1900 
is not what once it w r as. Clear Lake is no longer clear 
and beautiful, and between the railroad tracks and the 



344 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

lake no beauty is left. But on the eastward or south- 
eastward side of Main street, the city is still worthy 
of its fame. 

Some manufacturing firms are: M. Rumely 
Company, established in 1853, incorporated in 1887, 
manufacturers of threshing machines and engines, 
with branch offices in Chicago, in Wisconsin, in Ohio, 
in Missouri, in Iowa, and in Nebraska ; The Munson 
Company, a new establishment, manufacturing horse- 
less vehicles and electric apparatus of all kinds ; a 
large carriage factory; a wheel factory, dating from 
1870; two woolen mills or factories; and some other 
establishments. 

These furnish employment for many workmen. 
In 1852 or 1853 tne machine shops of the Michigan 
Southern road were located in La Porte, but were re- 
moved to Elkhart in 1870. 

Among those citizens of La Porte who have 
achieved fame, belongs the name of Mrs. Emma F. 
Malloy. Hers was for a time a brilliant but not happy 
life. She accomplished much as a "temperance mis- 
sionary," but she undertook at length a task morally 
impossible. She failed. Woman as well as man needs, 
in gjoing forth 'to the battles of life, to conflicts 
against terrible wrongs, to have the Christian armor 
bound most perfectly on. If one piece of that invinc- 
ible armor is missing she may be lost. And she 
needs, too, that bright armor in the most retired 
positions of a wife and mother. 

Another name here, of one who labored in a dif- 
ferent line and achieved, it may be, more enduring 
success, is that of Mrs. Maria B. Early, wife of J. 
P. Early, of La Porte, who, in 1876 was elected Con- 
ference Secretary of the Woman's Foreign Missionary 



CITIES AND TOWNS. 345 



.Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. She 
was one of those five girls mentioned as having, in 
1837, a home in City West, and in 1840 she was a 
member of the family boarding school of Mrs. J. A. 
H. Ball, at Red Cedar Lake. As Conference Secretary 
she gave addresses in various churches, and became 
well and favorably known as an active, earnest Chris- 
tian woman. 

Of men who have 'become widely known it is suf- 
ficient to mention the names of Judge John B. Niles, 
lawyer, scholar, Christian ; of Judge Osborn ; General 
Joseph Orr; of Colonel Gilbert Hathaway, General 
Jasper Packard ; Dr. Abraham Teegarden ; and to 
name yet others would make it difficult to find a 
limit. Outside of the city probably the most widely 
known was Hon. C. W. Cathcart. 

Churches in La Porte : two Lutheran ; two Roman 
Catholic ; Methodist Episcopal ; German M. E. ; Ger- 
man Evangelical; Presbyterian; two Baptist; Epis- 
copal; "Christian"; Unitarian; Quaker; Swedenborg- 
ian or "New Church." This last church organized in 

i859- 

The church buildings are mostly substantial city- 
like structures of brick or stone. 

The court house is a grand building of brown or 
reddish brown stone from Lake Superior. 

In the line of benevolent institutions La Porte has 
an undenominational Old Ladies' Home. In a La 
Porte publication for June, 1900, under the heading 
"Society Directory," appear the names of forty-one 
different organizations, including lodges, clubs, and 
societies of various kinds. Among them a Hebrew 
Ladies' Aid Society, and a Scandinavian Relief and 
Aid Society, also a Charity Circle, show that this city 



346 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

differs in some respects from the other towns and 
cities that have been noticed. 

La Porte has several miles of well-paved streets, 
it has telephones and electric lights, and has had free 
mail delivery since 1891. This has .reduced the num- 
ber of boxes in the postoffice from more than one 
thousand to about five hundred. The city population 
is about ten thousand. The census returns when pub- 
lished may give more. For a water supply the lakes 
around the city have been the dependence, but these 
are proving not sufficient, and a different source of 
supply is sought. It is hoped, when this is found, 
that the lakes may again fill up and assume their 
earlier beauty ; but besides what the city uses, a large 
amount of water is taken away from these lakes each 
year in the form of ice. They will not probably be 
again what they were in 1830. 

A record not in its proper place will close this 
notice. In J835 the postmaster was A. W. Harrison. 
In 1837 Dr. T. D. Lemon became postmaster and 
so continued till March 4, 1861. 

MICHIGAN CITY. 

There was a sale of government lands at Logans- 
port in October, 1831, and at this sale Major Isaac C. 
Elston, of Crawfordsville, is said to have purchased 
the lands on which is now Michigan City, and to 
have laid out town lots in October of 1832. Trail 
Creek, passing into the great lake here, not far from 
that immense pile of sand known as Hoosier Slide, 
and a little west of another immense, wooded sand 
bluff, suggested an appropriate place for a harbor and 
therefore, for a lake city. 

Pine and a few sugar maple trees were then grow- 



CITIES AND TOWNS. 347 



ing where the city is now. Near Lake Michigan were 
sand hills, and to the first settlers, who came in 1833 
the view was not inviting; no beautiful prairie land- 
scape appearing like that around La Porte ; but, says 
General Packard, "across the creek that passed 
through the woods, and which was still the abode of 
wild beasts, a low, wet, swampy tract of country oc- 
cupied all the locality." But these settlers came, not 
to open farms, but rather to found a city. And a 
city at length w T as built. 

The first log cabin, so far as known, was erected 
in August, 1833,, by Jacob Furman and B. F. Bryant; 
and in October Samuel Flint with his family ar- 
rived ; and Samuel B. Webster is the next name on the 
record of settlers in 1833. To him is attributed the 
erection of the first frame building, and the second 
was a dwelling house for the Flint family. The name 
of George W. Selkirk is found for October, 1833 ; and 
early in 1834 are the names of Thompson W. Francis, 
Joseph C. Orr, and Samuel Miller. In the same year 
came George Ames and Leonard Woods, and Sprague 
and Teall who purchased the stage line from Michigan 
City to Chicago, and many others. Town lots had been 
laid out by a surveyor and the town plat of Michigan 
City had been recorded in 1833. In 1834 hotels were 
built, and the growth in that and in the next two 
years was perfectly astonishing. Stores were opened, 
warehouses built, piers constructed, schooners and 
even little steamers, landed cargoes, and business was 
brisk. A school house had been built in 1834, which 
was used also as a church, and in 1836 there was a 
Protestant Episcopal church building, the first in the 
young city. 

In 1836 harbor improvements began for which 



348 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Congress appropriated twenty thousand dollars. The 
next year thirty thousand dollars was appropriated. 
One after another appropriations were made until 
1852 amounting in all to $160,733, an d year after year 
the money was expended and no real good accom- 
plished. The government abandoned the undertaking, 
and for fourteen years nothing more was done. Wil- 
liam H. Goodhue said, " 'Hope for a season' bade 
Michigan City farewell." At length, in 1866, the citi- 
zens determined to build a harbor themselves, and 
organized the 'Michigan City Harbor Company.' 
They raised money and worked, and again Congress 
began to help them. In 1867 an appropriation was 
made of $75,000; in 1868, of $25,000; in 1869, of $32,- 
500; and year after year appropriations were made 
until Michigan City had a harbor. In the meantime, 
through all these years, business and growth were 
not standing and waiting. 

"From 1837 to 1844, Michigan City was the prin- 
cipal grain market for Northern Indiana, wheat be- 
ing received from as far south as the central portion 
of the State. Huge caravans of ox teams, with two 
and three yoke of oxen to a wagon, would come in, 
sometimes thirty or forty such teams together. The 
supplies for all this large extent of country were 
purchased here. The same teams which conveyed 
the wheat to market, would return laden with goods 
for the home merchants. It was not uncommon for 
three hundred teams to arrive in one day." 

The railroad era came and things were changed. 
The Michigan Central road reached Michigan City 
in 1850, and in 1851 machine shops were built. The 
Douisville, New Albany & Chicago road reached 
Michigan City in 1853. Other roads soon were built. 



CITIES AND TOWNS. 349 



In 1857 was located the Northern Penitentiary. Manu- 
facturing firms soon began to employ prison labor. 
The first was for cooperage, firm, Hayward & De 
Wolfe. The next was for wagons and carriages, dif- 
ferent men controlling the business from itime to 
time, employing in 1876 one hundred and fifty of the 
prisoners, and making carriages, buggies, and sleighs, 
besides adding, to this business, cooperage, their 
sales at this time amounting to one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. Ford & Johnson, in 1870, com- 
menced chair making, soon employing also one hun- 
dred and fifty men, their chairs going out even as far 
as Japan. 

The Michigan City car factory has done a large 
business, cars being made for the government during 
the Civil War, four hundred men at times having 
been employed. 

Fisheries have in some years been very profitable 
at Michigan City. Lyman Blair, it is said, has packed 
in one year white fish worth forty thousand dollars. 
1856 and 1857 were years noted for a great catch of 
white fish and trout. 

Churches in Michigan City: Congregational, 
Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, Episcopalian, two 
Lutheran, both large brick buildings, two Roman 
Catholic, German M. E., Swedish Lutheran, and two 
Congregational mission churches. Also one Baptist. 
In all, thirtee-n. 

Manufacturing firms : Ford & Johnson, chairs. 

Haskell & Barker, Car Co. 

Tecumseh Knitting Factory. 

Lakeside Knitting Factory. 

Free delivery of mail matter since 1892. Formerly 
in the postoffice 1,300 boxes. Now only 420. Michi- 



350 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

gan City is built on beds of sand, deep, heavy sand r 
that sometimes blows and drifts like snow, for there 
are very light particles in what is called heavy sand. 
Immense quantities of sand from the Hoosier Slide 
are taken away in carloads to Chicago, but it is a huge 
mass yet. Foundations have been laid in this great 
bed of sand that underlies the city for many grand 
structures. 

In 1871 a large public school building was erected 
on a sightly spot, and the grounds "have been kept 
in their present beautiful condition" through the care 
and benevolence of a pioneer of 1834, Mr. George 
Ames, who, having no children of his own, cared for 
the welfare of the children of others. For the school 
grounds it seemed as though "he could never do 
enough." He was accustomed, for many years, to 
present each graduate of the school with a likeness 
of himself and also with one of the school building and 
the grounds, and, dying about 1892, he left a sum of 
money the interest of which is to be expended in keep- 
ing up and adorning the school grounds.* 

This school building, considered for the size of the 
city, "one of the finest in the State,"* was destroyed 
by fire in January, 1896, and was replaced by another 
grand building ready for use in January, 1897. 

Besides electric lights and paved streets this city 
has electric railways. Its population is about 15,000. 

It has a full share of the various social orders of 
the day, and has been noted in all its years of growth 
for quite a number of wealthy citizens. It has been 



* Authority, Miss Minnie E. Barron, a graduate of the 
school and a teacher in the year 1900. 

* General Packard. 



CITIES AND TOWNS. 351 

first and still is first in its manifestations of the re- 
finement and even of the aristocratic tendency of 
cities. It has some noble Christian men and women, 
cultivated and refined. It has a good many citizens 
now of foreign birth. It contains probalbly alone of all 
our towns, a Soldiers' Monument. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



EARLY TRAVELS. 

In a little book of seventy-two pages, called "Jour- 
nal of Travels, Adventures, and Remarks, of Jerry 
Church," printed at Harrisburg, 1845, belonging to 
E. W. Dinwiddie, of Plum Grove, some interesting 
statements concerning a few of our localities are 
found. The writer, Jeremiah Church, born in Brain- 
bridge, New York, evidently very eccentric and an 
adventurer, as he himself allows, spent many years, 
apparently between 1820 and 1835 or 1840 in various 
adventures and speculations in the then West and in 
the South. 

He appears to have been honest in his dealings and 
truthful in his narratives. A little confusion exists 
in his dates where he gives 1830 after he has given as 
the year 183 1. Considering the latter the correct date, 
some extracts from the journal are now quoted. In 
company with his brother ( he had been speculating 
in lands at Ottawa, in Illinois, laying out town lots 
on government land, and he says : "We then prepared 
to leave, and hired a man with a yoke of black oxen 
and a wagon, to take us to Chicago, distant eighty 
miles, which we travelled in two days and a half — two 
nights camped out. At last we arrived in front of a 
hotel, in the City of Chicago (which at that time con- 
tained about half a dozen houses, and the balance 



EARLY TRAVELS. 353 



Indian wigwams), with our ox stage. We stayed there 
a week or two with the French and Indians, and en- 
joyed ourselves very well. We then took passage in 
a wagon that was going to Michigan through the 
Indian country, without anv road. We followed 
round the beach of the lake ; camped out the first 
night and slept on a bed of sand. The next morning 
we came to an old Frenchman's house, who had a 
squaw for a wife. They had three daughters, and 
beautiful girls they were, and entertained us very well. 
My brother almost fell in love with one of the fel- 
low's girls, and I had 'hard work to persuade him 
along any farther. He told me that he thought he 
felt a good deal like 'an Ingen,' and if he had an 'In- 
gen gal' for his wife, he thought he could be one. 
However, I persuaded him to travel on." 

This place seems evidently to have been Bailly- 
town, although the Porter County annalist assigns 
to this family "four ibeautiful and accomplished 
daughters" named Eleanor, Frances, Rose, Hortense. 

The journal continues : "We went on through the 
Pottawatomie nation until we came to a place called 
the door-prairie. There we stopped and tried to buy 
a piece of land for the purpose of laying out a town 
at that place. We could not get any title but an 
Indian one, and we concluded that would not do, so 
we travelled on." They reached Detroit at length, 
"a. very beautiful place." 

This singular traveller and adventurer went back 
from Detroit after a little time with a man who had 
a horse and wagon, and he says : "We travelled the 
same road that my brother and I had travelled 
* * * so that in our route we came to the old 
Frenchman's house where the Indian girls were, and 



254 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

as my brother was not with me, I concluded that I 
would play Tngen' awhile myself." 

They staid three days, by permission of the fam- 
ily, rested, hunted, and then made a new start for 
Chicago. According to the journal "It was fifty miles 
from the old Frenchman's house to the Callamink 
where the first white man lived on the road. He had 
a half-breed Indian wife and kept the ferry across 
the Callamink River at its mouth." They expected 
to reach his house the first day, but their horse was 
tired out. They camped, sleeping in a broken canoe, 
and reached the ferry at ten the next day. Jerry 
Church was almost famished. No food was to be had 
till a wagon returned from the town. He shot a 
blackbird. The woman cooked it and made him some 
coffee. He made out a breakfast. The man would 
take no pay, but he gave the woman a dollar, and 
they went on to Chicago. 

Business soon again took him back to the door- 
prairie, and on his return to Chicago he took a 
slightly different route. He says, "I was then about 
twelve miles from the Dismaugh Creek, which emp- 
ties into the Michigan lake where Michigan City now 
stands. That was in the year 1830." This narrative 
is evidently trustworthy, but this date should surely 
be 1 83 1. He now had a horse and peddler's wagon or 
carriage, and a young man and the young man's sis- 
ter wished to go through with him to Chicago. The 
sister was on horseback, the two men in the wagon 
or carriage. "The first day we cleared a road and got 
down near to the lake and encamped." So the jour- 
nal reads. To the young lady the carriage was given 
for a "bed room," and the two men slept under it. 
The next Hay they went on. "We struck the lake 



EARLY TRAVELS. 355 



where Michigan City now stands, ours being the first 
carriage of any kind that had been there; and there 
was not a white man living within twelve miles of the 
place at that time. We then took the beach and fol- 
lowed it to Chicago. We had to icamp out three 
nights/' So this time he avoided or missed Bailly- 
town. 

Yet once more this peculiar man, Jerry Church, 
peddler, trader, speculator, showman, town and city 
founder, crossed this strip of then new country. He 
and his brother were now at Indianapolis. There 
they traded for three town lots. Then they bought 
a "cream-colored horse and a small red, square box 
wagon * * * and took the national road for 
Michigan lake, the mud about two feet deep, and 
as black as tar." 

"We travelled through a pleasant part of the State 
of Indiana, so far as land is concerned, until we ar- 
rived at Michigan City, situate on the lake shore, 
where three years before I had slept under the wagon, 
and the young lady who was with us slept in it. There 
were no inhabitants within nine miles of it at that 
time, and now it was a considerable town, and 
called a city." As in August, 1833, tne fi rst log cabin, 
so far as known, was built in Michigan City, this visit 
must have been in 1834 rather than in 1833, an< ^ so 
the conjecture that 1830, as the date of the first car- 
riage track made there, should be 1831 is confirmed. 

Misprints in dates are by no means uncommon. 
One more extract, as again Michigan City is a starting- 
point. "We there took the beach of the Michigan 
lake and followed it to Chicago, and there we found 
a lirge town built up in three years ; for it was only 
three years since we were there with the black oxen 



356 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

and wagon, and at that time (183 1) there were but 
half a dozen houses in the place." And here, in 1834, 
we will leave this singular man, Jeremiah Church, 
and his interesting journal. 

Having found a peculiar traveller crossing, in 
1 83 1, the strip of land bordering on Lake Michigan 
from Chicago to Detroit, and from Detroit back to 
Chicago; then again, from Chicago to Door Prairie 
and back once more to Chicago and then, in 1834, 
from Michigan City to Chicago : next in the order of 
time come, "Travels of James H. Luther in 1834, 
1835, and 1836." 

He is writing for "Lake County, 1884," and he 
says, "The northern extremity of Lake County had a 
history before the central and southern portions 
were hardly known." He refers to travel "along the 
beach of Lake Michigan" from Detroit to Fort Dear- 
born before 1834, and then, in 1834, his own narra- 
tive begins. It is so graphic and so illustrative of 
pioneer life that it does not seem suitable to con- 
dense it. 

He says : "I, in company with the Cutler boys of 
La Porte County, travelled with ox teams upon the 
beach from near where Indiana City was afterwards 
built to Chicago, and Fox River, Illinois, which was 
then called the Indian country, was unsurveyed, and 
occupied by Aborigines. Our object was to make 
claims and secure farms. I was then nineteen years 
old." 

This must have been sometime in 1834. "We 
returned in the spring of 1835 for teams and supplies. 
After the grass had grown so that our cattle could 
subsist upon it, we, with an elderly gentleman from 
Virginia, by the name of Gillilan, who had a large 



EARLY TRAVELS. 357 



family of girls, three horses, a 'schooner wagon' filled 
full, started west, and this time struck the beach at 
Michigan City. Our first camp was on the beach 
where, back of the sand ridge, were extensive marsh 
lands with abundant grass, upon which we turned uur 
cattle consisting of eight yoke of oxen and one cow." 
In the morning, when hunting up their oxen, one 
was missing. They found him mired in the marsh 
and "almost out of sight." They succeeded in getting 
his legs out of the mire and then rolled him about 
five rods to ground upon which he could stand. 

The narrative proceeds. "We only made about 
three miles on our way that day. We finally reached 
the Calumet, now South Chicago, without further ac- 
cident * * * and went into camp. That region 
was then all a common with plenty of feed. A small 
ferry was then used there 'by the single inhabitant 
living on the north side of the river in a log cabin. 
After considering the matter well and consulting with 
the ferryman, we concluded to drive into the lake 
below and go round the river on the sand bar. After 
studying and getting our bearings we hitched our 
friend's lead horse before the ox teams and I, as pilot, 
led the way, and succeeded in getting the ox teams 
nicely over. Our Virginia friend and family came 
next. They had never seen so large a body of water 
before, and were very timid in spite of all. The only 
danger was in getting too near the river, not in get- 
ting too far into the lake. I hitched on to them and 
started in. They were scared and screamed, and beg- 
ged me to get nearer land, which I presume I did, 
and the wheels began to sink in the softer sand near 
the river and we were stalled. The boys on the other 
side hastened to us. I dismounted into the cold 






358 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



liquid to my armpits ; could hardly keep the precious 
freight aboard our wagon. But the oxen came, were 
hitched on, and my horse to lead, and we pulled out 
all safe and well pleased. This was exciting, but we 
boys feared nothing, but it was awful to our Virginia 
friends. But they soon cooled off, settled on a claim 
near ours, and were happy * * * I drove teams 
between Chicago and La Porte up to the fall of 1836 
and did not know of any other way but via the beach." 

"I have not travelled along that beach since 1836, 
but in the spring of 1837, I started from, Valparaiso 
for Milwaukee * * * intending to take the usual 
beach route, but missed it, and came upon what my 
friend, Bartlett Woods, speaks of as the 'ever-to-be- 
remembered-by-those-who-crossed-it/ Long Bridge 
over the Calumet River, at the mouth of Salt Creek, 
built of logs and covered with poles * * * I had 
far more fear in crossing this than I had in getting 
around the mouth of the Calumet River." 

This rather remarkable bridge he thinks was built 
by Porter and Lake counties in 1836. His father, 
James Luther, he says, was the commissioner of Por- 
ter County for 'building it. Constructed, he says, of 
logs and covered with poles, it was commonly called 
the Long Pole Bridge, and many probably, supposed 
that nothing but poles entered into its construction. 
G. A. Garard says it was sixty-four rods long. 

In the same spring of 1837, James H. Luther re- 
turned from Chicago to Porter County by stage, and 
the line of travel which he gives as the stage route 
at that time was, "along the lake banks" "to the Calu- 
met, which we ferried, thence to the Calumet again 
where Hammond now is, * * * thence the road 



EARLY TRAVELS. 359 



ran on between the Grand and Little Calumet rivers 
via Baillytown * * * to Michigan City." 

Besides the beach route which was evidently the 
earliest between Michigan City and Chicago, the 
traces yet remain of the two other routes of travel in 
the days of those early stages ; the one passing not 
far from the present Hessville ; the other, south of the 
Little Calumet, by way of the Pole Bridge and the 
early Liverpool, along that grand sand ridge where 
now are Highland and Munster. Old roadways, un- 
less plowed over and over, leave their traces for many 
long years. 

The next interesting record of travel along one of 
these lines is of a trip made by James Adams in 1837. 

"In the year 1835 James Adams passed through 
Liverpool on his way toi Chicago or Fort Dearborn. 
He returned in the winter to Michigan. In January, 
1837, during the Patriot's War in Canada, he was sent 
by Governor Mason and General Brady, from De- 
troit to Chicago, as messenger extraordinary to ob- 
tain soldiers from Fort Dearborn to aid in the de- 
fense of Detroit. There was, it may be remembered, 
a stage route then between these two places. The 
sleighing was at this time good. Warmly clad, fur- 
nished by General Brady with a pair of good fur 
gloves, receiving instructions to make the distance 
in twenty-four hours, if possible, he left Detroit at 
4 p. m., in a sleigh drawn by a good stage horse. At 
each stopping place, the distance between being about 
twelve or fifteen miles, he gave the attending hostler 
a few moments for changing his horse, requiring the 
best horse in the stable, and dashed on. At 8 p. m., 
of the next day he entered Chicago ; thus making *he 
distance in twenty-eight hours, probably the shortest 



360 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

time in which a man ever passed over that route drawn 
by horse power. He delivered his instructions to 
Captain Jamison, who chartered the stagecoaches 
and sent the soldiers immediately to Detroit. J. 
Adams was allowed to remain off duty for four 
weeks." 

He was at this time a regular stage driver on the 
line from Detroit to Chicago, and well did he know 
the road. Distance, 284 miles. 

Note : Both James H. Luther and James Adams 
were for many years well known citizens of Lake 
County, the former having been county auditor from 
1861 to 1869. 

In 1837 I crossed that long pole bridge as many 
as five times, passing from City West into Lake 
County and returning to City West. T. H. B. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Said Dr. Lyman Beecher, many years ago, as a 
man of "the East" speaking- of what was then called 
"the West:" 

"We must educate ! we must educate ! or we must 
perish by our own prosperity. If we do not, short 
will be our race from the cradle to the grave." While 
some of our pioneers were men quite ignorant of 
books, untrained in schools, true men of the frontiers, 
understanding well the use of the axe and the -rifle, 
others of them, and many of them, came from the 
older centers of cultivation and intelligence, from New 
England, New York, Pennsylvania, and other Eastern 
States ; and these very soon after providing for the 
two great necessities of life, shelter and food, began 
to lay the foundations for schools and churches. 
Learning and religion, with them went hand in hand 
with material prosperity. They understood the mean- 
ing of those other words of Dr. Beecher, "If, in our 
haste to be rich and mighty, we outrun our literary 
and religious institutions, they will never overtake 
us ;" and "what will become of the West, if her pros- 
perity rushes up to such a majesty of power, while 
those great institutions linger which are necessary 
to form the mind, and the conscience and the heart 



362 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

of the vast world? It must not be permitted." And 
they were here, these intelligent and virtue-loving 
pioneers, before the Indian mission schools had fully 
ceased, to see under the Providence of God, that it 
was not permitted. 

Little log school houses were erected by these 
men, all the pioneers manifesting a praiseworthy in- 
terest in having school life commence. The authority 
for some statements, now, is the "History of La Porte 
County" elsewhere mentioned. 

"The first school house which was built in the 
county was on Lake Du Chemin * * * in the 
year 1829. This was, however, a mission school, in- 
tended for the Indians ; but it subsequently served for 
both Indian and white alike." 

The second school house was built in 1832, the first 
pioneer building, erected at a place called then or 
afterward, Springville. Miss Emily Learning was 
the first teacher. And in 1833 Miss Clara Holmes 
taught in a log school house near what became Door 
Village. In 1833 also was built the first school house 
in what became the village and town and city of La 
Porte. In this year the pioneers erected a building 
for a school near Hudson Lake, which seems to have 
taken the place of the building of 1829. The teacher 
here was Edwards. 

In 1834 other log buildings were erected for 
schools, one in the new Michigan City; and in this 
same year "Elder Silas Tucker, a Baptist minister," 
succeeded Miss Learning at Springville. In the next 
three years a few other buildings for schools were 
erected, and teachers were : Joel Butler, Miss Aman- 
da Armitage in 1836, John B., McDonald, Miss Elisa- 
beth Vickory, Ebenezer Palmer, and, in 1837 or 1838, 



OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 363 

William C. Talcott, "then a Universalist preacher," 
and since then a judge, an editor, a writer. 



Before looking for other pioneer schools, the truth 
of history will surely not suffer from the following 
statements : 

The first school, of which any mention has been 
found, was an Indian mission school on Hudson or 
Du Chemin Lake in 1829. It is difficult now to ob- 
tain all the facts, but no little time has been spent in 
making research. It is evident that, by some means, 
the writer of the La Porte County history must have 
been misled in regard to the "Carey," or as he writes 
it, the "Cary Mission." On page 400 of his large, in- 
teresting, and valuable work, he states that "Joseph 
W. Lykins, connected with the 'Cary Mission/ whose 
headquarters were then at Niles, in Michigan, es- 
tablished a mission among the Indians on the bank 
of the Du Chemin Lake, now in Hudson township." 
He gives 1829 as the year. On page 402 he says, writ- 
ing of events in the year 1830, "As stated elsewhere, 
the Cary Mission, a Roman Catholic enterprise, had 
established a branch mission at this place among the 
Indians." The place he names is "Lake Du Chemin." 
He continues : "This year we find this mission 
school taught by an Indian named Robert Simmer- 
well, assisted by his wife, a white woman. At this 
school white and Indian children come together." 
"Some of the Indians at this place, under the train- 
ing and influence of this mission and school, no doubt 
became most devout Catholics." 

The last statement is evidently guess-work. 

He once more, on page 431, treating of "Indian 
advancement in knowledge," refers to this Hudson 



364 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Lake school and to Robert Simmerwell, an Indian, as 
being in charge of it in 1830, and adds: "It may be 
further remarked that many of these Indians became 
devout Catholics under his training." This is very 
naturally assumed from the supposed facts. But the 
reader has seen in the second chapter of this book, 
page 25, that the Rev. Isaac McCoy, a Protestant and 
a Baptist, established the "Carey Mission" in Michi- 
gan, and that Mr. Lykins was his assistant. Now it 
is not probable that there was at that time a "Cary 
Mission," Catholic, and a "Carey Mission," Baptist; 
a Mr. Lykins, Catholic, and a Mr. Lykins, Baptist. 
Abundant proof of the Baptist "Carey Mission" sta- 
tion and school can be found in "The Missionary 
Jubilee," an official work of 500 pages, published in 
1865. (See pages 466 and 467). It is there stated, 
after giving the facts already named, that "the re- 
moval of the Indians to the West was delayed one 
or two years, during which a small school was main- 
tained by Mr. Simmerwell." This school may have 
been on Hudson Lake. The report in the "Mission- 
ary Jubilee" further says that "Mr. and Mrs. Simmer- 
well, who labored for the Pottawatomies at Carey 
Station in Michigan, accompanied them to their new 
location, west of the Mississippi." It states, officially, 
that Robert Simmerwell (page 264) was born at 
Blockley, Penn., and was appointed Baptist mission- 
ary to the Indians (see page 265), April 30, 1825, and 
that he resigned and the mission was discontinued 
April 8, 1844. There could hardly have been two 
Robert Simmerwells teaching among these Indians 
in Michigan in 1830, and this one could not have 
been an Indian and certainly was. a Baptist. 

Combining the authorities the unexpected result 



OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 365 

is reached, that the first school in northwestern In- 
diana opened in 1829, in a house "of hewed logs," 
was a Baptist Indian mission school where white and 
copper-colored children received instruction from the 
same teachers. That many of the Indians around 
this "beautiful lake" became ''devout" Baptists as a 
result of this school is not in the least probable. 

Finding that General Packard's excellent and re- 
liable history of La Porte County gives some state- 
ments in regard to this school, without, however, sug- 
gesting that it was Catholic, the following statements, 
recapitulating in part the gathered facts, are here in- 
serted : 

Rev. Isaac McCoy, a native of Indiana, was ap- 
pointed a Baptist missionary among the Indians in 
1 81 7. He removed from Fort Wayne to Carey in No- 
vember, 1822. In January, 1823, he opened a school 
there for the Indians. His labors there closed in 
1830. His very full and interesting history, "His- 
tory of Baptist Indian Missions," was published in 
1840. 

Speaking of Robert Simmer-well, J. Lykins, and 
Jotham Meeker, Mr. McCoy says : "For many years 
we have all labored side by side in our missionary 
enterprise." The full name of Mr. Lykins is given 
as Johnston Lykins in the official missionary reports, 
and he was born in Ohio. According to Mr. McCoy's 
narrative, Mr. Lykins was sick in the West in No- 
vember, 1829. On recovering he returned to Michi- 
gan, to Carey, and in the early part of 1830, selected 
fifty-eight reservations of land for young Indians con- 
nected with the mission school which land had been 
allowed at the treaty of 1826. He then, April 29, 
J 830, started with Dr. Josephus McCoy for Fayette, 






366 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

in Missouri, arriving there June 24, 1830. He left Mr. 
Simmerwell at Carey in April, 1830, and he himself 
returned to Carey, leaving Missouri July 27, 1830. 
He soon after his arrival at Carey attended to the 
valuation of the mission property, which had been 
purchased by the government and was now valued 
by Charles Noble of Michigan and Mr. Simonson of 
Indiana at $5,721.50. The arrangement was made 
that Mr. Simmerwell should occupy a part of the 
mission buildings till he could arrange for another 
temporary residence not far away, as it was consid- 
ered desirable for him to remain till the Indians were 
removed. He and his wife remained at Carey for a 
few months, the school being discontinued except 
seven or eight Indian children which Mr. and Mrs. 
Simmerwell kept with them. Mr. McCoy's narrative 
says that they "then located in another place in the 
same neighborhood." It must have been now well 
along in 183 1. Mr. Lykins went to Missouri. The 
Missionary Jubilee, an official report, says : "Mr. 
Lykins, the associate of Mr. McCoy at Carey, ap- 
pointed to labor among the Shawanees in Missouri, 
arrived on his field on July 7, 183 1." That official 
report also says, "Mr. and Mrs. Simmerwell, who 
labored for the Pottawatomies at Carey Station in 
Michigan, accompanied them to their new location 
west of the Mississippi." That report further says, 
in regard to Carey, that by a treaty provision "the 
station was substantially relinquished in 183 1." "The 
removal of the Indians to the West was delayed one 
or two years, during which a small school was main- 
tained by Mr. Simmerwell . Again the report says : 
"Mr. Simmerwell removed to Shawanee, Ind. Ter., 
arriving November 14, 1833." These reports and the 



OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 367 

narrative of Mr. McCoy leave no time for Mr. Johns- 
ton Lykins, a native of Ohio, one of the missionaries 
at Carey Station, to be a resident at Hudson Lake 
in 1829 or 1830, and the Joseph W. Lykins, a Welsh- 
man, could not have been "connected with the 'Carey 
Mission,' " that Lykins who was, according to Gen- 
eral Packard's authorities, a resident at Hudson Lake 
in the fall of 1829. That Mr. Robert Simmerwell, a 
missionary and not an Indian, of whom Mr. McCoy 
says, "At Albany I found Mr. Robert Simmerwell, 
with whom I had formed an acquaintance in Phila- 
delphia," and of whom he further says, "We found in 
Mr. Simmerwell a persevering missionary brother," — 
that he, with his wife, did have a school at Hudson 
Lake, between the spring of 183 1 and the fall of 1833, 
may readily be accepted as a fact. One statement 
more. In "Catholic Missions Among the Indian 
Tribes," by Shea (see pages 393 and 394), where the 
Pottawatomies are mentioned and the St. Joseph 
River, and "the Baptist ministers stationed there," no 
mention is made of a Joseph W. Lykins, a Welshman, 
as a Catholic missionary. One missionary is men- 
tioned as coming among these Indians in 1830, but 
his name was Reze, and he soon went elsewhere. 



Note. July 25, 1899, I conversed with an aged 
Baptist man, at Morocco, A. B. Jenkins of Goodland, 
born in 1822, who stated that his father's family was 
one of seven families who settled, about 1825, between 
Fort Wayne and Fort Dearborn, and that five of them 
settled near the present city of Niles. The Carey 
Mission, he said, was not far from their home, a mile 
or two west of Niles. It is described as being "on 



368 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

the river of St. Joseph, in Michigan territory, among 
the Pottawatomies." T. H. B. 



Returning now to the real pioneer schools in the 
little log buildings. Miss Mary Hammond is found 
as the first teacher in Porter County, and the year 

given is 1835. In 1837, Masters was teacher 

in the village of Valparaiso, and the first woman who 
taught there, it is said, was Miss Eldred, a sister of 
Mrs. Ruel Starr. Log buildings went up and many 
neighborhood schools were commenced. In what be- 
came Lake County the first school was taught in the 
winter of 1835 and 1836 by Mrs. Harriet Holton, in 
some respects the most remarkable woman ever re- 
siding in Lake County. She was the daughter of 
General Warner, was born in Hardwick, Mass., Jan- 
uary 15, 1783, was married to Alexander Holton, a 
young lawyer, about 1804, with him left New England, 
having been a successful teacher in Westminster, and 
settled at Vevay, Ind., in March, 181 7. In 1820, the 
family removed to Vernon, Ind., where Mrs. Holton 
became again a teacher, and in February, 1835, then a 
widow, having two sons and a daughter, she, with 
others, in wagons drawn by oxen, journeyed toward 
the Northwest, crossed with their ox teams the Kan- 
kakee marsh region in fearfully cold weather, and 
became a resident in the hamlet which afterward, as 
a village and county seat, was called Crown Point. 
She had seven sisters, and when their mother died, 
about 1840, about ninety-four years of age, the eight 
sisters met at Enfield, in New England. One was 
the wife of the wealthy governor of Vermont; one 
was Mrs. Stuart, wife of Judge Stuart of Vermont, 
a man of wealth as well as of social position ; another 



OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 369 

was Mrs. Bradley, wife of a Vermont lawyer; another 
was Mrs. Brown, wife of a Massachusetts lawyer, and 
yet another, a Mrs. Hitchcock, also wife of a Massa- 
chusetts lawyer; and Mrs. Harriet Warner Holton, 
an Indiana pioneer woman, Lake County's first 
teacher, worthy of her place as a sister of those 
wealthy and cultivated women of New England. 
"These eight sisters were all members of the Presby- 
terian church, and all died of old age, two of them 
while sitting in their chairs." Mrs. Holton died Oc- 
tober 17, 1879, nearly ninety-seven years of age, and 
as the body was borne toward the Crown Point ceme- 
tery the court house bell was tolled, which was the 
first and last time till now (1900), that its deep tones 
have been heard at the time of a burial procession. 
"Honor to whom honor is due." 

In 1835 there was no school house in Lake County. 
All the earliest ones were of logs, and which one, 
among three or four, was first is not now quite cer- 
tain. The most noted of these, probably the largest, 
the walls still standing, was erected in the summer of 
1838, on the west side of Red Cedar Lake. Here 
the school was taught by Mrs. J. H. Ball. She/ 
like Mrs. Holton, was by no means an uncultivated 
woman. Born in Agawam (West Springfield), Mass., 
in 1804. educated in the best schools of Hartford, 
Conn., a proficient in penmanship, in drawing and 
painting and map-making, probably the best practical 
botanist ever residing in the county, and the only 
woman in the county in those early days who had 
studied the Hebrew language, she passed at Crown 
Point the brief examination required for teachers that 
her pupils might receive their due share of the public 
school money, William A. W. Holton, school exam- 



370 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

iner, and commenced her work as a teacher in 1839, 
a work which in .another form continued for some 
sixteen years, and in an informal way until her death, 
in 1880. For about ten years that large log school 
house was a center and a meeting place for schools, 
for literary societies, for Sunday school and church 
work, and then was appropriated for private uses. 

Other early teachers, in a house on the east side 
of this same lake were : Albert Taylor, Lorin Hall, 
Norman Warriner, probably in the winter of 1838 
and 1839, in 1840 or 1841 Miss H. Caroline Warriner, 
and in the winter of 1843 an d 1844 T. H. Ball. Yet 
others were : Miss Eliza Kinyon, at South East Grove 
in 1843, Miss Rhoda Wallace in 1844, and Miss Ruby 
Wallace and her sister, now Mrs. William Brown, 
in 1845. No record of a school building in Starke 
County has been found until the year 1852, although 
"Wagner's little building in Oregon township had 
been used before this for a school." 

In Jasper County the first school building, twelve 
feet by fourteen as to its dimensions, was erected in 
1838. Its location was known as 'The Fork." The 
first teacher was William A. Webster. The second 
school house was built soon after the first in the Blue 
Grass settlement northeast of Rensselaer. No record 
of date has been found for the first school building 
in the area that became Newton County, but an earty 
teacher there was Byron Kenoyer. 

In Pulaski County, organized in 1839, about ten 
years after the first white family entered its borders, 
there were pioneer schools; as also there were in 
White County; but records in regard to them have 
not been found, and there are few living now whose 
memories reach back distinctly over a period of sev- 



OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 371 

enty or even of sixty years. Rude as were the build- 
ings in those early years it need not he supposed that 
the teachers were unlearned, undisciplined, unculti- 
vated. Some of them were men and women of mature 
years, who had been well trained in Eastern schools 
and colleges, and only for a short time were such 
found teaching in pioneer schools. The undisciplined 
teachers came in after years, and from families where 
there was little home training. One of the accom- 
plishments needful for a pioneer teacher, which may 
be called a ''lost art" now, was how to make pens of 
goose quills, and also how to mend them. For this 
purpose a sharp pen-knife was always needful and 
some degree of skill, for it was not a very easy thing 
to make a good pen. It was quite a tax upon one's 
time, and sometimes a trial of the teacher's and pupil's 
patience. One young teacher in Lake County, while 
not lacking in skill, had a little, ingenious instrument 
called a penmaker, which usually made a good pen 
in a moment and so saved much time. How early 
public funds were used to sustain or help to sustain 
these earlier schools, treated here as public schools, 
is not quite certain ; but evidently very soon after the 
schools were commenced. The first constitution of 
the State, adopted at Corydon in 1816, laid the founda- 
tion for public education. The early acts of the gen- 
eral assembly provided for the election of trustees, of 
school commissioners, and for the distribution among 
school districts, to be marked out in the congres- 
sional townships, of public school money. As early 
as 1843, perhaps some years earlier, public money 
was paid to teachers, and also distributed in districts 
where the schools were largely private. Children at- 
tending any school were entitled to their share of the 



372 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



school money for the year. School examiners were 
appointed by the circuit courts. These officers ex- 
amined teachers and gave certificates. The first school 
examiner in White County was James Kerr, in 1836. 
Money was not to be paid to teachers who had no cer- 
tificates, nor until legal reports were made. Year 
after year changes in laws were made. According 
to an "Act to increase the benefits of common 
schools," approved January 17, 1849, certain taxes 
were to be assessed for school purposes, but only 
upon "free white persons."' This act was not to be 
in force till adopted by vote in each county. By this 
act the treasurer of state was constituted State super- 
intendent of common schools. In 1852, another 
school law, under the new constitution of the State, 
was adopted and a State superintendent was soon 
elected. By an act approved in March, 1855, each civil 
township was made a school township, and the trust- 
tees were constituted school trustees, but in the enum- 
eration of children between five and twenty-one years 
of age, the trustee was still required to specify the 
congressional township in which the children re- 
sided, and the law said: "The number of children 
in each congressional township shall be set out." In- 
corporated towns and cities were now authorized to 
establish public and graded schools. Provision was 
made for township libraries. Negroes and mulattoes 
were still excluded from taxation, and their children 
from enumeration and school privileges. The chil- 
dren could attend the schools on payment of tuition 
if no white persons objected. By the act approved 
March 4, 1853, tne scno °l examiners were to be 
appointed annually by the county commissioners. 
These were to examine teachers in orthography, read- 



OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 373 

ing, writing, arithmetic, geography, and English 
grammar. Some time after physiology and United 
States history were added. New laws continued to be 
framed. In 1873 county examiners became county 
superintendents, appointed by the school trustees of 
the townships, and the public school system of In- 
diana has become quite mature. The school fund is 
large. Along with all these changes, improvements, 
and complications, our schools, teachers, and offi- 
cers have gone. Some of our schools are among the 
best of their kind in the State. 

In 1889 a law was passed requiring uniformity 
in text-books in the public schools throughout the 
State. The law-makers in the earlier years of our 
public schools do not seem to have had an exalted 
opinion of the moral character of the teachers, for 
they required them not only to present full reports 
of their schools, but the accuracy of their reports 
had to be confirmed by an oath. Here is one illus- 
tration : 

"State of Indiana, County of Lake, ss: 

I, Uriah McCay, being duly sworn, do depose and 
say that the foregoing statement * * * is true/' 

"Subscribed and sworn before me this 26th day of 
February, 1854. 

"JABEZ CLARK, TRUSTEE." 

The teacher named above, like Elder Silas Tucker 
in La Porte 'County and Elder Bly in Porter, was a 
Baptist minister, devoting, as they did, and as min- 
isters of other denominations in those years did, part 
of the time to preaching, and a part to teaching to 
obtain an adequate support. Elder Uriah McCay was 
a student for some years at Franklin College taught 
in the central part of the State, settled at length at 



374 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Des Moines, in Iowa, where, so far as known, he yet 
lives, an aged, excellent man. Fifty-four pupils were 
reported for that school of 1854. They are arranged 
into four classes, thus: Males over thirteen and 
under twenty-one." Names in this section or divi- 
sion are: James Vinnedge, Harrison Young, N. 
Carle, George Carle, Frederick Davis, George B. 
Davis, Allis Gale, Benjamin Gale. Not one of these 
is reported as studying English grammar, but reading, 
writing, spelling, arithmetic, and one ventured to take 
hold of geography. "Females over thirteen and un- 
der twenty-one." Names : Elisabeth Vinnedge, Su- 
san Davis, Mary H. Young, Nancy Scritchfield, Elec- 
ta Prentice, Nancy Beck, Elisabeth Beck, Elisabeth 
Carle. Some of these girls study English grammar, 
besides the other four needful studies. "Males over 
five and under thirteen." Names : George W. Edger- 
ton, Henry L. McCarty, Joseph Vinnedge, Francis 
M. Vinnedge, ITouis F. Edgerton, Sampson Carle, 
Goliah Carle, Orrin Thompson, Amos Thompson, W. 
C. Thompson, William Hill, Jesse Hill, Jackson 
Scritchfield, Orlando Prentice, Israel Beck, Edwin 
Stokes, Emanuel Beck, S. Scritchfield, Cassius M. 
Taylor, Marion King. "Females over five and under 
thirteen." Names : Catherine Taylor, Mary E. Hill, 
Amy Mann, Mary A. Davis, Esther S. Davis, Mary 
E. Vinnedge, Delila A. Vinnedge, Sabra M. Taylor, 
Mary A. 'Taylor, Arvilla Carle, Martha Scritchfield, 
Ethlinda Gale, Sarah Young, Sabra Vinnedge, Mar- 
tha Thompson, Harriet Beck, Louisa Hill, Frances 
Scritchfield. 

Accompanying this report is another of the same 
year and township, Cedar Creek; township, signed by 
Maria Bryant, teacher, reporting forty-six pupils, 



OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 375 

"subscribed and sworn to" before Timothy Cleveland, 
township clerk, March 28, 1854. The same branches 
taught, "orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, 
geography, English grammar." 

The following extract, from a long report of school 
visitations made by James H. Ball, school examiner, 
shows the capture of a deer by dogs and school boys 
as latq as 1B69 : No. 3, Temple school, Miss E. Ken- 
ney, teacher. Most of the boys absent. Adventure 
in the chase attracted them out. A wounded deer 
chased by the hounds sought for protection at the 
school house, and as it "doubled" on its track to 
evade its pursuers what school boy could resist the 
temptation of joining in the chase while the "wild 
bay was sounding?" What girl could watch or look 
upon a scene like this without emotion? Captured 
and the spoils divided, sparingly to go round, and 
but few returned to study. 

The reports, of which the above is one, were pub- 
lished in the Crown Point Register, and were proba- 
bly the first regular and formal visitations of schools 
in Lake County by a county officer. A few names 
of teachers of the year 1869 are here given, taken 
from these reports : Miss Miriam McWilliams, T. S. 
Fancher, Miss Mena Groman, C. D. Farwell, Miss 
H. F. Ritcher, C. C. Dittmers, Miss Ann Sheehan, J. 
M. Blayney, G. F. Sutton, R C Wood, Ralph Bacon, 
Miss Sarah J Turner, Miss Jennie . Death, Leonhart 
Wagner, Adam Gerlach, Edwin Mair, Paul Lehman, 
Nicholas Niefing, Anton Miller, J. Evans, Jas. Dowd, 
Miss Jeannette Pearce, Miss F. A. Williams, William 
Hill, J. W. Hoel, Miss Sophia Westerman, Putnam 
Pratt, W. F. Purington, Miss H. A. Dickerson, Miss 
Josephine Einslie,and Miss Emily Vanhouten. These 



376 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

were teachers in Hanover, West Creek, Cedar Creek, 
and St. Johns townships. These reports were pub- 
lished thirty years ago. At that time, 1869, some of 
the schools in German neighborhoods were just work- 
ing into English. One of these reports says: Ger- 
man taught half a day twice a week, and catechism 
after four o'clock each day. Arithmetics used com- 
bine the German and English on opposite pages. 
Writing in German and English equal." Of another 
school the report says : "Recitations in German and 
English interspersed freely. This district is appar- 
ently satisfied with the mother tongue." Of another, 
"Class in German botany." Of another, "German 
seems to preponderate." "This is a hard working 
teacher and in German, excellent, but pronunciation 
of English poor." Changes have taken place in thir- 
ty years. For some years the Scripture was read in 
the morning in the American public schools and 
prayer was often offered. And, as mentioned above, 
"Catechism" was freely taught in several of the 
schools. Now the Bible is excluded from the public 
schools almost entirely and the voice of prayer, ex- 
cept in the German schools, is seldom heard. The 
Catechism, too, has nearly gone out from the public 
schools. 

The following statements are taken from the 
Nineteenth Biennial Report of the State Superin- 
tendent (department of public instruction), and "trans- 
mitted to the General Assembly January 15, 1899:" 

A. Number of school houses : 






OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 377 

Stone. Brick. Frame. Total. 

Lake 26 95 121 

Porter 53 50 103 

La Porte 1 53 82 136 

Starke 7 59 66 

Pulaski 4 97 101 

White 5 118 123 

Jasper 5 103 108 

Newton 3 73 j6 

Total 834 

B. Number of teachers: 

In In 

town- In In high 

ships, towns, cities. Total, schools. 

Lake 135 17 49 201 21 

Porter 113 5 28 146 15 

La Porte 137 4 yy 218 47 

Starke 66 15 81 3 

Pulaski 105 16 121 11 

White 123 39 162 15 

Jasper 108 11 17 136 

Newton ....... 75 24 99 8 

Total 1,164 

C. Number of graded township or county schools : 
Lake, 13; Porter, 6; La Porte, — ; Starke, 3; Pu- 
laski, 2 ; White, 4 ; Jasper, 5 ; Newton, 3. 

D. Of township graded high schools : Lake, 7 ; 
Porter, 1 ; La Porte, 10; Starke, o; Pulaski, 3 ; White, 
2; Jasper, o; Newton, 1. Among the seven graded 
township high schools in the State called " Commis- 
sioned, " Lake County has one. Marion County alone 



o78 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

has two. Four other counties, Hamilton, Hancock, 
Lagrange, and Miami, have one each. 

Enumeration of school children, between the ages 
of six years and twenty-one, for 1898 : 

No. in In In 

townships, towns, cities. Total. 

Lake 5,438 1,073 3>75 8 IO > 2 33 

Porter 4,071 211 1,595 5> 8 77 

La Porte 5,172 155 7,813 13,140 

Starke 2,590 928 3,5*8 

Pulaski 3,951 862 4,813 

White 4,119 1,796 5,915 

Jasper 3,414 944 763 4,621 

Newton 2.249 J ,°78 3,3 2 7 



Grand totals 31,004 7,011 13,929 51,444 

E. Compensation of teachers : Average per day 
for each teacher in dollars and cents : Lake, $2.30 ; 
Porter, $2.08; La Porte, $2.11; Starke, $1.98; Pu- 
laski, $2.01 ; White, $2.29 ; Jasper, $2 ; Newton, %2.2y. 
Average per day of high school teachers : Lake, $3.62 ; 
Porter, $4.05 ; La Porte, $3.44; Starke, $3.50; Pulaski, 
$3.32; White, $3.40; Jasper, $3.41; Newton, $3.35; 
Average of teachers in district schools : Lake, $2 ; 
Porter, $1.89; La Porte, $1.78; Starke, $1.98; Pu- 
laski, $1.84; White, $2.05; Jasper, $1.89; Newton, 
$2.06. 

F. Amount paid teachers in each county, in dollars, 
omitting odd cents : Lake, $84,247 ; Porter, 52,435 ; 
La Porte, $86,151 ; Starke, $20,995 ; Pulaski, $29,377; 
White, $46,518; Jasper, 37,412; Newton, $^1,693. 

G. Total estimated value of school property in 
dollars : Lake, $353,635 ; Porter, $219,200; La Porte, 
$360,319; Starke, $73,420; Pulaski, $89,670; White, 



OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 379 

$145,925 ; Jasper, $140,055 ; Newton, $85,025. Total, 
$1,467,249. 

H. Total amount paid in one year, to our 1,164 
teachers, $388,828, being an average to each teacher 
of $334. To the teachers in Lake an average of $419, 
omitting the cents; in Porter, $359; La Porte, $395; 
Starke, $259; Pulaski, $242; White, $287; Jasper, 
%26y\ Newton t $318. These items under H not in 
the "Report," but are derived from it. 

I. Average length of terms in days: Lake, 179; 
Porter, 173; La Porte, 167; Starke, 123; Pulaski, 
128; White, 136; Jasper, 136; Newton, 145. 

J. Number of volumes in township libraries : 
Lake, 4,405; Porter, 6,573; La Porte, — ; Starke, 
3,288; Pulaski, — ; White, 510; Jasper, — ; New- 
ton, — . 

K. Number of books in Young People's Read- 
ing Circle libraries: Lake, 1,832; Porter, — ; La 
Porte, 9,842; Starke, 1,695; Pulaski, 393; White, 
1,716; Jasper, — ; Newton, — . 

L. County diplomas issued for the year 1898 : 
Lake, — ; Porter, 81; La Porte, 145; Starke, 115; 
Pulaski, 119; White, — ; Jasper, — ; Newton, 56. 

M. Membership in Young People's Reading Cir- 
cle for the year 1897-1898: Lake, 3,460; Porter, 
789; La Porte, 1,132; Starke, 3,000; Pulaski, — ; 
White, 2,117; Jasper, 517; Newton, 350. 

N. Membership in Teachers' Reading Circle, same 
year: Lake, 202; Porter, 146; La Porte, 145; Starke, 
— ; Pulaski, 83; White, 208; Jasper, 132; Newton, 95. 

These reading circles of the State of Indiana were 
organized by the State Teachers' Association, the one 
for teachers in 1883, the one for young people in 1887. 
The State Teachers' Association was organized in 






380 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

1854. Southern Indiana Teachers' Association 1877, 
Northern 1883. 

One more statement may 'be added here. 
O. Amounts paid trustees in a year for managing 
educational matters. Amounts in dollars : Lake, 
$2,052; Porter, $1,380; La Porte, $1,663; Starke, 
$479; Pulaski, $1,002; White, $878; Jasper, — ; 
Newton, $695. 

Some names have been given of teachers in Lake 
County thirty years ago, which are of interest to many 
in Lake County now. The following list of names of 
the teachers of Newton County in 1899, furnished by 
the county superintendent, W. L. Kellenberger, will 
be of interest to some in Newton County thirty years 
hence, and so a place is given to them here. In Kent- 
land seven : E. H. Drake, E. A. Turner, Frances 
Jessen, Ethel Darroch, M. Blanche Ellis, Myrtle 
Hays, and Ruth T. Chase. 

In Goodland nine: J. C. Dickerson, Edna Wat- 
son, Chauncy Kemper, Sophia Getting, Anna Der- 
shall, H. C. Deist, Fred Perry, Etha Massena, and 
Nellie Harper. In Brook, four: W. L. Kellenberger, 
Laura Esson, Bruce Pumphry, Flora Pfrimmer. In 
Morocco, five: E. E. Giltner, S. R. Sizelove, Anna 
Tullis, George Royster, and Essie Kendall. In Jeffer- 
son township, eleven: Lillie Kenoyer, Ethel Rider, 
W. O. Carrothers, J. B. Lowe, Delia Light, Sarah 
Duffy, Kathrina Pfrimmer, Mabel Pfrimmer, Edmona 
Pfrimmer, Laura Harris, and Maggie Spaulding. In 
Grant township, seven : Gertrude Ellis, Myrtle Rice, 
Roy Shepard, Frank Burns, William Tice, Grace D. 
Clark, and James Gilmore. In Washington township, 
thirteen: E. E. Hussy, Charles Buswell, L. A. Lov- 
ing* John Pratt, Lloyd Hesshman, Anna Hiel- 



OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 381 

man, Mildred M. Groves, Nannie B. Buswell, 
Pearl Pendergrass, Emma Doty, Cora Dear- 
durff, Chloh Merchant, and Belle Odle. In Iro- 
quois township, seven : Roy Hesshman, Mary Duffy, 
L. C. Lyons, C. E. Sage, J. Thomas, Maud Hess, and 
Mittie Dewerse. In Bower township, eight : Lolo 
Graves, Daisy Thompson, Claud Roberts, W. O. 
Schaudlaub, Joyce Smith, Maggie Tracy, D. E. Cor- 
bin, and Nellie Hatch. In Jackson township, ten ; 
C. G. Hammond, Nora Kuney, Leotha Seward, Eva 
Hess. Flora Parks, Jesse Marion, L. B. Haskell, Sa- 
loma Pfrimmer, Hayes Young, and Mamie Tracy. In 
McClellan township, four : Elva Skinner, Jesse Hun- 
ter, Libbie Bolley, and Lillie Mahin. In Colfax town- 
ship, four : Fannie Kasel, Will Jenkins, N. W. Parks, 
and Hattie Boston. In Lake township, five: R. 
Hess, Guy Myers, F. A. Tyler, E. Ainsworth, and 
Perry Heath. In Lincoln township, eight: George 
E. Rogers, Emma Brady, Tavia Gibson, Mae Laugh- 
lin, Mary Howminski, Ernest Lamson, Maurice 
Sterner, and Lucy Ball. In all 102 teachers in Newton 
County for the school year of 1898 and 1899. As near 
as can be determined from the names, about 56 young 
ladies and 46 men. 

Some interesting particulars in regard to the 
schools of Pulaski County are presented here, as taken 
from the annual report of these schools for 1898. The 
names are given of 125 as the teachers of the county. 
Of common school graduates the names of 116 are 
given, with the subjects or title of their graduating 
papers and orations. 'Some of these subjects are 
weighty for common school graduates to handle, but 
they show the advance in education in our day. Such 
are, "Our Duty to Posterity," "Centralization/' 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



"Newspapers of the United States," "Civil Service 
Reform," and "Christianity and Civilization." Some 
indicate very interesting papers, as "Indiana," "Pu- 
laski County," "The Tippecanoe," and "Water Fowls 
of Pulaski County." One is specially suggestive, 
"Humble Origin of Man." The author is a girl, per- 
haps a young evolutionist coming on to take part in 
the conflict of opinions. 

It seems from the Report that a county contest 
of young orators is held each year, one from each 
township contending for the "honors/' the first being 
a gold medal and the second a silver medal. The 
grading is on the following points : Thought in the 
oration 30 per cent, originality 30, memory 20, force 
in delivery 10, and gesture 10, making in all, for per- 
fection 100 per cent. Some might question, on this 
grading whether gestures were really as valuable as 
force in delivery of orations, and whether originality 
was three times as valuable as force. That originality 
is very rare in school orations is quite well known. 
In reporting the county teachers' institute this Re- 
port sets surely a good example, in publishing all the 
receipts and expenditures, item by item, so that all 
may know from what sources the money comes and 
how each dollar is applied. Some regulations adopted 
by the county board of education are, perhaps, pecu- 
liar to this advanced coUnty, and are worthy of record. 
One is, that all schools of the county shall open on 
the same day. Another is, that all schools shall close 
for one week during the holidays. A third is, that the 
daily session shall be commenced not later than 8 145 
a. m., and not be closed 'before 4 o'clock p. m., with 
one /hour's intermission at noon. In the time table 
15 minutes are assigned to the "opening exercises." 



OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 383 

It would be interesting to know in what these exer- 
cises consist. The most time assigned to any one 
study is seventh-five minutes, the time given for read- 
ing and also arithmetic. Among "suggestions" these 
school officials say, and no doubt well say : ' 'The three 
great difficulties in the way of our public schools are, 
the youth of many of the teachers, the lack of train- 
ing on the part of a large majority of teachers, the use 
of too many textbooks." 

It is not supposed in these records of schools to 
institute any comparison in the particulars brought 
out in this Report, between Pulaski County and the 
seven other counties ; but some material is furnished 
that readers, may compare for themselves. 

While the early schools were in rooms that would 
not be considered comfortable now, it is not wise to 
infer that no good teaching was done, for among 
these pioneer teachers were such men as Judge Wil- 
liam C. Talcott, Judge Hervey Ball, a graduate of 
Middlebury College, - Rev. Norman Warriner, Rev. 
afterwards Dr. Silas Tucker, Alexander Hamilton, 
who taught in Porter County, who afterwards became 
a leading lawyer of Chicago, "a man of high family 
and fine education," and others, men and women 
whose names need not be repeated here. Yet the 
shrewd Miss Rachel B. Carter, Miss Ursula Jackson, 
and especially Mrs. Harriet Holt on may be named, 
and there were yet other women of no mere back- 
wood's training. Largely the teacher makes the 
school, whatever are the appliances or surroundings ; 
and with all the modern improvements there are yet in 
our public schools some rather inferior teachers. It 
is not wise nor altogether generous to decry the past. 



384 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Some have done this to the injury of their own in- 
terests. 

"Say not our age is wiser, if it be 
It is the wisdom which the past has given 
That makes it so." 
Nor yet is it well to magnify unreasonably the 
things of the past. Well does Dr. Horatius Bonar 
ask: 

"Did the long gleam upon the ancient Nile 
Blaze in a richer radiance to the noon, 
When History's old father gazed upon it? 
Or was the sunshine on the hills of Greece 
Purer when Homer sang and Sappho wept ? 
Or was the brow of Lebanon more fair 
With whiter snow wreaths when the kings of Tyre 
Builded their marble palaces beneath 

The mighty shadows of its haughty peaks ? 

***** * 

I kno-w not ; yet I love to wander back 

To this earth's younger days and earlier scenes, 

In which there seems to meet both age and youth, 

The blossom and the fruit, the joy of dawn, 

And the grave quiet of the solemn eve." 

That some of the most noted teachers of the world 
lived in the long ago past every scholar knows ; and 
that we had some good, very good teachers in our 
pioneer days, which are --not many years back, surely 
no well-informed person will question, although the 
walls of the houses were of logs and the window glass 
only oiled paper. And there were those trained, at 
least for a time, in those schools, who have done good 
work in these later years. 

Said Senator Miller of New .York some years ago, 
addressing the public school teachers of that Empire 



OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 385 

State : "The future of all legislatures, judiciaries, and 
executives, is in the keeping of the educational de- 
partment; whether they shall wisely provide for the 
public good, honestly interpret the laws, and faith- 
fully execute them, depends upon' the honesty of the 
work done by our teachers." "The three hundred 
thousand teachers, with more than two millions of 
pupils under their charge, reaching into and taking 
hold of the heart strings of every family in the land, 
constitute a power which, when directed toward the 
achievement of any reform in society or government, 
cannot be successfully resisted by any opposition or 
combination of opposing forces." 

In these things our children ought to be more 
thoroughly instructed, obedience to lawful authority, 
regard for truth, regard for the rights of others. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



PRIVATE AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. 

Before the public schools had made much ad- 
vance out of the early pioneer period, several private 
schools and academies were cormmenced and carried 
on for a few years, furnishing as these did, a more ex- 
tensive course of study and better substitutes for 
collegiate education, than could be found in the pub- 
lic schools. 

An early academy was founded at La Porte, called 
the Lancasterian Academy, Rev. F. P. Cummins, 
Principal^ This academy was opened before 1843, tne 
precise date not found. This school had one evening a 
grand exhibition, perhaps the most attractive, in its 
literary exercises that had been given in any of these 
counties. Two young members of the Cedar Lake Ly- 
ceum, E. J. Farwell and T. H. Ball rode in one day 
about fifty miles on horseback, in order to attend it. 
And their expectations were realized. The academy 
was not kept up many years, and about 1843 ^ was 
merged in the literary department of the La Porte 
University for which a charter had been obtained in 
the winter of 1840 and 1841. The law department 
of this university was organized in 1841, the medical 
in 1842, and the literary in 1843. None of these de- 
partments flourished very longi Medical lectures 
were suspended in 1851, and the building was occu- 



PRIVATE AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. 387 

pied afterwards by Prof. Churchman, who started a 
literary academy for girls which flourished until the 
building was burned in the winter of 1855. Other 
and later private schools were kept up for a time by 
Mrs. Holmes, T. L. Adams, by W. P. Phelon— 
Technic and Training school, — and some others, but 
all, except the parochial schools, at length gave place 
to the public schools. 

In Lake County the first academic and boarding 
school was opened by Mrs. J. A. H. Ball, about 1840. 
It continued, in some form, for some sixteen years. 
"It sent six students to colleges and seminaries and 
fitted many for business and the duties of life." Among 
the boarders at this school from other counties was 
Maria Bradley, of La Porte, who became Mrs. J. 
P. Early; and she and Elisabeth H. Ball, two of the 
five girls of City West, were educated for a time to- 
gether; and from this school, an informal graduate, 
the latter went forth to New York City and to south 
Alabama and there became a successful teacher in the 
Grove Hill Academy; and as the wife of Judge Wood- 
ard, of Clarke County, accomplished a large and 
lasting work in Sunday-school, and church, and mis- 
sion enterprises. In different parts of the land these 
two City West girls, one a Methodist, one a Baptist, 
lived not unto themselves. 

The next academic and boarding school of the 
county was commenced by Rev. Wm. Townley about 
1848. In this school instrumental music for the first 
time in the county was taught. This school achieved 
in its day a good success. It supplied the public 
schools largely with teachers from the girls of the 
school. In November, 1852, Mr. Townley stated that 
he had had nearly five hundred scholars, and that not 



388 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

five young men had gone out as teachers. This school 
closed in 1856, Rev. W. Townley leaving Crown Point 
for the West. 

In 1856 Miss Mary E. Parsons, a graduate of 
Mount Holyoke Seminary, having taught at Oxford, 
Ohio, commenced a school at Crown Point, hoping 
to found another Holyoke school. She accomplished 
much for the cause of Christian education, but her 
efforts were terminated 'by her death at Crown Point, 
November 14, i860. 

A primary school for children was opened, prob- 
ably not long after i860, by Mrs. Sarah J. Robinson, 
a daughter-in-law of Solon Robinson, and a young 
widow, one of the best teachers of little children ever 
in Crown Point, "kind, patient, loving, unselfish, and 
truly Christian." In July of 1864 she went to Nash- 
ville in the service of the Christian Commission. She 
was also at Memphis, Vicksburg, and New Orleans. 
She returned in September, 1865, to Crown Point, 
but not to teach. In 1866 she was married to Dr. 
W. H. Harrison, an army surgeon, and went with him 
to Mexico. 

The next schools of the county to be mentioned 
Here are a girls' school started by Miss Martha 
Knight and Miss Kate Knight in 1865; the Crown 
Point Institute, also commenced in 1865, having a 
preparatory and collegiate course of study, and in one 
of its years having about sixty boarding pupils, edu- 
cating a few hundred young men and young ladies, 
the property being sold to the town of Crown Point 
August 1, 1871, for $3,600; and the Tolleston school 
established by A. Vander Naillen, a French mathe- 
matician, about 1 866, in which' was taught civil en- 



PRIVATE AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. 389 

gineering, and which was removed to Chicago in 
December, 1869. 

1. In Porter County, at Valparaiso, Rev. J. C. 
Brown opened a school in the Presbyterian meet- 
ing-house, probably in 1843. ^ was a school of ac- 
ademic grade, and received pupils from outside of the 
county. How long it continued is not known. In 
later years the Valparaiso Institute was established 
which was for some time a flourishing school, having 
a large, substantial building and good teachers. 

The years of its prosperity included probably 1863. 
As the public schools improved, this, like the schools 
in La Porte, gave way to the city graded school. 

2. The Valparaiso College was opened in the 
fall of 1859, the Rev. C. N. Sims, A. M., President. 
His successors were: 

"E. H. Stanley, A. M.; B. W. Smith, A. M. ; 
Thomas B. Wood, LL. D. ; R. D. Utter, A. M. ; and 
A. Guernsey, D. D." In 1871 the college gave place 
to the Northern Indiana Normal College, H. B. 
Brown, founder. 

3. The Northern Indiana Normal School and 
Business College. Valparaiso. 

The special announcement for 1900 says : "The 
school was organized September 16, 1873, with four 
departments; four instructors, and thirty-five stu- 
dents ; now there are nineteen fully equipped depart- 
ments, fifty-seven instructors, and an average daily 
attendance of more than 2,000 students, making this 
the largest Normal School in the United States." 

This school has had a remarkable growth. The 
school year consists of five terms with ten weeks in 
each term. 

The school was opened in the building of the Val- 



390 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

paraiso College. It now has large, costly and fine 
looking buildings, massive they may well be called, 
on what is known as College Hill. 

Near Rensselaer is the St. Joseph's Catholic Col- 
lege, a flourishing institution. 

Near the college is located the St. Joseph's In- 
dian Normal School, founded in 1888, as a training 
school for Indian boys. 

PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. 

1. Lutheran Schools in La Porte County: — 
In Michigan City are two large Lutheran schools, 
the buildings of brick near to the churches. The 
churches are large brick edifices nearly opposite 
each other on the main street of the city. One 
is called St. Paul's and the other St. John's. 
In St. Paul's school are four rooms and of pupils 
287. Quite an area of ground is in front of the school 
building and adjoining the church, which in the sum- 
mer time is a 'beautiful flower garden. 

In the school building of the Church of St. John 
are three rooms with pupils 220. In La Porte are also 
two schools. The number offlcially given for the 
larger school is 332. Number of pupils at Otis 4; 
at Tracy 13 ; at Hanna 21 ; at Westville 15 ; at Wana- 
tah 23. 

Placing the smaller school in La Porte at 100 and 
there will be of Lutheran children in the county re- 
ceiving church teaching 1,015. 

In Porter County: — At Valparaiso, pupils 47, at 
Kouts, 30. Total 77. 

In Lake County: — In this county are seven 
schools. Number of pupils : Whiting, 61 ; Tolleston, 
92 ; North Hammond, 95 ; Hammond^ 235 ; Hobart, 
44; Crown Point, 56; Winfield^ 15. 



PRIVATE AND PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. 391 

Total in Lake County, 598. 

In Starke County : — At North Judson, 53 ; at Win- 
ona, 18; Total 71. 

In Pulaski County : — At Denham, 22 ; Medaryville, 

6- 

In Newton County: — At Goodland, 18. 

In White County : — At Reynolds, 43. 

In Jasper County : — At Fair Oaks, 24, at Kniman, 
11. 

Total in the eight counties, 1,885. 

2. In the Catholic schools of La Porte are now 
about one hundred pupils. 

In Michigan City there are probably five or six 
hundred. In the county perhaps eight hundred. No 
way has been found for obtaining the exact number. 

In Porter County the school at Valparaiso is large, 
numbering no doubt several hundred. 

In Lake County there is a large school at Ham- 
mond and smaller ones at Crown Point, at St. Johns, 
at Dyer, and at other places, amounting, in 1890, in 
eight schools, to 726 pupils. 

The number in Lake County at present may be 
placed at 900. 

No way has been found for obtaining any exact 
estimate of the number of schools or of the pupils 
in the other counties, but wherever, in those counties, 
there is a large Roman Catholic church, there is quite 
sure to be a parochial, Catholic school. The children 
receive much catechetical instruction. Neither Cath- 
olic nor Lutheran children are allowed to pass four- 
teen years of age ignorant of the great doctrines of 
their churches. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



LIBRARIES. 



Those to be mentioned in this chapter are of four 
varieties : township libraries, school libraries, circulat- 
ing libraries, and town or public libraries. 

i. A library coming under no one of these vari- 
eties will first be noticed. 

In the summer of 1838 there was formed at Val- 
paraiso The Porter County Library Association. A 
library began to be collected which in 1850 contained 
about 500 books. 

It was neither a public nor a circulating library, 
for the first by-law adopted was that only members 
should read the books. In 1855 the books were dis- 
tributed to the different townships of the county, and, 
so far as appears, the association was dissolved. 

2. The McQure libraries, though coming into 
no one of the four classes named, also need some 
mention. From a quite full notice of these given by 
Mr. Niles in the account of the La Porte Public 
Library, are taken the following statements : William 
McClure was "the first president of the Philadelphia 
Academy of Science, a man of large means, had 
travelled widely, was intimate with many scientific 
men, and had an extensive knowledge of science. Pie 
became associated with Robert Owen" at New Har- 
mony, a village "on the Wabash River in Posey 



LIBRARIES. 393 



County." As Mr. Niles refers for his authority to a 
"pamphlet prepared by J. P. Dunn of Indianapolis, 
formerly State Librarian," and as Mr. Dunn says, 
"The name of William McClure is hardly known in 
Indiana, outside of Posey County;" and as he also 
says that "not only have these libraries almost van- 
ished, but even the memory of them is well nigh 
gone;" and as he adds that "in many years of in- 
quiry" no account of the McClure libraries had been 
found as given to the public until his pamphlet was 
issued ; it seems appropriate that somewhere in Indi- 
ana history some of these facts should be preserved, 
and therefore, considerable space is here given to a 
somewhat lengthy extract from a historical sketch 
''prepared by William Niles." 

Robert Owen came to this country in 1823, and 
he and McClure gathered around them at New Har- 
mony many men eminent in science, including Joseph 
Neef, the disciple of Pestalozzi and Schoolcraft, the 
student of Indian life. Owen's experiment ended in 
failure, and in 1827 Owen returned to England. Two 
of his sons, however, remained here and were well 
known and influential citizens of this State. 

McClure, like many others at New Harmony, had 
a hobby, which in his case, was the amelioration of the 
condition of the working classes, especially through 
the agency of working men's institutes. The "New 
Harmony Working Men's Institute" was established 
under his influence in 1838. He donated to it an order 
on a London bookseller for 200 pounds. Its library 
was afterwards joined to another which McClure had 
aided, and later the township library was added to this 
combined library, which still exists and has 7,650 
volumes with an annual circulation of 24,000 — which 
is considered very creditable for a village of 1,000 
in the benighted pocket. McClure had a curiously 
assorted lot of possessions, including some thirty 



394 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

buildings at New Harmony, and about 10,000 acres of 
land in the vicinity; also castles in Spain — or, what 
is better, over a million reals in Spanish securities ; a 
house in Alacante on the Mediterranean coast of 
Spain ; the convent of St. Gines and accompanying es- 
tate of 10,000 acres in Valencia ; the estate of Carman 
de Coix in the valley of Murada. He also held mort- 
gages on property in Virginia, England, France and 
Spain, and large and curious collections of books, min- 
erals, copper plates of engravings, etc., etc. The last 
codicil of his will was executed in the City of Mex- 
ico in 1840. His will provided that his executors 
should "donate the sum of $500 out of his other prop- 
erty in the United States of America to any club or 
society of laborers who may establish, in any part of 
the United States, a reading and lecture room with a 
library of at least 100 volumes." The "laborers" were 
defined in the will as "the working classes who labor 
with their hands." Under this will 144 associations 
received donations in 89 of the 92 counties of this 
State. As a rule they were* not long-lived. They 
were almost always formed for the purpose of getting 
the donation. In each case the recipients were re- 
quired to show that they were "laborers" and that 
they had complied with the provision for collecting a 
library of 100 volumes, but these preliminary libraries 
were usually composed of old books of all sorts, hast- 
ily gathered together and of little practical value. The 
Civil War soon took away many of the members — 
this being one of several causes that were fatal to 
the entire plan. In 'most cases the books were finally 
divided and became the individual property of the 
members. Only two or three of these libraries are 
now in existence. 

It seems from Mr. Niles' statement that 144 times 
$500, or $72,000 went from Mr. McClure's large 
estate into 89 of our Indiana counties, and surely the 
northwestern corner of the State is entitled to pre- 
serve the name and memory of one who gave so much 



LIBRARIES. 395 



for libraries, if in the end it all amounted to so little. 
That was not the fault of the generous donor. 

The Crown Point McClure Library Association 
commenced putting out books, according to the li- 
brarian's record, in August, 1857, and the last record 
of books taken out is dated March 2, 1885. To read- 
ers in Crown Point and the early settlers in the 
county, the names of those taking out some of the 
first books would be of interest, such as D. K. Petti- 
bone, D. Crumbacker, E. Griffin, R. F. Patrick, J. P. 
Smith. R. B. Young, John Wheeler, I. O. Dibble, 
Z. F. Summers, E. M. Cramer, J. G. Hoffman, W. 
G. McGlashen, H. Pettibone, A. D. Foster, A. All- 
man, Johnson Wheeler, Wm A. W. Holton. D. Tur- 
ner, S. D. Clark, J. H. Luther, F. S. Bedell, and many 
other once well known names of those who are 
seen here no more; but a longer list of these names 
must be omitted. 

There are many valuable books in this library ; 
nearly all were books of solid worth, and it is of in- 
terest to those who knew the men to notice the dif- 
ferent books which each man selected. The last book 
taken out, March 2, 1885, was taken by Hon. Bart- 
lett Woods, and no one acquainted with him would 
be surprised to see that the book was Democracy in 
America, by M. De Tocqueville. 

The last record in regard to this library, as found 
in the Librarian's book, is dated June 1, 1885, and 
it states that W. A. Clark and G. L. Vorhees on that 
day removed the McClure Library, then "comprising 
148 volumes," to the library of the Public School of 
Crown Point. The books were to be used as refer- 
ence books by the school and the library was to be 
"still open to the members as before." This stipu- 



896 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

i 

lation has been found to be utterly impracticable. 
The library is practically shut out or shut in from the 
use of the members of the association. They can- 
not well visit it in school hours, and it is locked up 
after school hours. 

The following closes that memorandum : "I do 
hereby vouch for the receipt and proper care and use 
of the same and shall hold it in charge under the or- 
ders of the McClure Library Association. " 

(Signed.) "GEO L. VORHEES, 

"Superintendent of Schools." 

One of the boys of the high school put the stamp 
of the school library on the books and seems to have 
undertaken to remove the McClure stamp. In the 
latter, which was certainly not honorable, he did not 
succeed. 

The last president of the McClure Association yet 
resides in Crown Point. If the time should ever 
come for a town library in Crown Point the 148 Mc- 
Clure books should go to that library. 

3. Of the township libraries provided by the 
State for the benefit of the children of the public 
schools and for the entire families connected with 
the schools, but little mention need be made. Some 
very appropriate and useful books were put into these 
libraries, and for a few years they served an excellent 
purpose, furnishing some good reading matter 
which many of the families could not then have well 
secured without some such provision by the State. 
But finally, as changes came, the township library 
system was given up. 

Then, as the cause of education was generally 
advancing in the State, and in some parts rapidly, the 
more enterprising individual schools began to pro- 



LIBRARIES. 397 



vide libraries for themselves. In different ways funds 
were raised to procure books, and some of the town- 
ship trustees, under a wise provision of the law con- 
cerning reference books, would furnish some books 
for these separate school libraries. In the more 
advanced counties and townships, nearly every school 
at this date of 1900 has a library for general read- 
ing, containing also some reference books. The se- 
lection of these books may not always be most wisely 
made, some of the libraries containing quite an 
amount of what some would call light fiction; but 
it seems to be quite a general principle that those 
who secure funds have the right to say how the 
money raised shall be appropriated. The State does 
not furnish the money to any great extent, according 
to the proper working of our school laws, and the 
State authorities have, therefore, no right to select 
the libraries. Quite generally the teachers select. 
A good library in every school district, when properly 
used, is one great help for self-improvement. While 
the school library system is not yet all that it is ca- 
pable of becoming, it is quite an advance on the oppor- 
tunities for reading that many of the children had in 
the pioneer days ; when only a few had access to any 
large libraries. 

4. Circulating libraries, like all other libraries, 
depend, for the good they do, upon the character of 
the books. But their existence and use mark a stage 
of advancement. There are not many of these in our 
towns and cities. 

For some years, after November 4, 1882, quite a 
large library of this variety was kept in Crown 
Point by James H. Ball. This furnished reading 
matter for many 'families, but it was finally consumed 



398 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

by fire with the building in which it was kept, and 
efforts since made for such a library have been un- 
successful. The book of record of the Crown Point 
Circulating Library has just come to hand and con- 
tains fifty-nine pages of the names of those reading 
the books, closing in May, 1886. 

5. Town libraries sometimes come early and 
sometimes later in the growth of a town and city. 

From a quite lengthy sketch of the La Porte 
Library and Natural History Association, prepared 
by William Niles, Esq., of La Porte, son of Judge 
J. B. Niles, when the library was "formally transferred 
to the City of La Porte, April 25, 1897, to become 
a free public library," the following statements and 
extracts are taken : 

Mr. Niles writes : "In the midst of the absorb- 
ing struggle for the Union, a generation ago, Rev. 
C. Noyes, of the Presbyterian church, of La Porte, 
sought to establish a library and reading room here." 
He soon secured for this object five hundred dollars, 
and an organization was perfected. It was soon 
proposed to unite with the McClure Working Men's 
Institute, then possessing a library of about seven 
hundred, "in the main, well selected books." This 
union was effected before May 11, 1863. That Insti- 
tute had been organized with about thirty members, 
workmen in the railroad shops, August 16, 1865. 

After various details in regard to the united li- 
brary association, Mr. Niles states that in 1868 "the 
natural history collection was begun" by Dr. Hig- 
day and others. After many changes in regard to 
management and financial matters, in 1882, a farm, 
which by the will of Aurora Case, had come into the 
possession of the association, was sold for fifty-five 



LIBRARIES. 399 



hundred dollars. The association now owned a build- 
ing and had fifty-three hundred dollars laid aside 
for future use. Funds also came from the estate of 
Mrs. Nancy A. Treat amounting to one thousand 
dollars, and a dwelling house not then to be converted 
into money, but valued at four thousand dollars, was 
also go to the library association. It was proposed 
in June, 1896, to remodel and enlarge the library 
building and turn the property over to the city. The 
historical sketch says : "The proposed changes have 
now been completed and improvements made at a 
cost of about $5,500. The result is an attractive and 
commodious building. The present value of the prop- 
erty now transferred to the city may be estimated at 
$20,000. With this beginning of a fine public library 
its permanence and great usefulness can not be 
doubted." 

Before closing Mr. Niles says : 

For nearly twenty-five years no lecture courses 
have been given, but before that time many famous 
lecturers appeared before the association audiences, 
including Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Dloyd 
Garrison, Charles Sumner, George Sumner, Wendell 
Phillips, Bayard Taylor, Benjamin F. Taylor, Horace 
Greely (who was also here in 1853, making the trip 
from LaFayette to Otis on a hand-car because of an 
accident on the New Albany road), Petroleum V. 
Nasby, (his first lecture) W. H. Milburn, (the blind 
preacher, chaplain of the U. S. Senate) J. G. Holland, 
John G. Saxe, Geo. Thompson, M. P., (English 
Abolitionist) John B. Gough, James B. Belford (the 
red-headed-rooster-of-the-Roekies) Elizabeth Cady 
Stanton, Grace Greenwood, Anna E. Dickinson, Mrs. 



400 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



Mendenhall, Clara Barton, (her first lecture) Olive 
Logan and Mrs. Scott Siddons. 

To these are added as noted persons who have 
spoken in La Porte, but not in connection with the 
association: Daniel Webster, in 1837; Henry Ward 
Beecher, in 1844; General Neal Dow, in 1879, and 
two Presidents of the United States and four Vice- 
Presidents. 

MICHIGAN CITY LIBRARY. 

Note : The following sketch of this library, 
through the kindness and courtesy of Miss Daisy 
L. Brown, of Michigan City, has come directly from 
the Librarian as prepared ■ by her for this book. 

To both these young ladies special thanks are re- 
turned. T. H. B. 

The Michigan City public library had its origin 
in a legacy of $5,000 left by Mr. George Ames, as a 
fund to be used for the purchase of books for a pub- 
lic library, in case a library organization should exist 
within a stated time. In 1894 interest in the organiza- 
tion of a library association began to manifest itself. 
Early in 1895 a literary society known as "the Fort- 
nightly Club" appointed a committee to look into 
the provisions of Mr. Ames' will, and to report a 
plan of organization necessary to secure the benefits 
of the bequest. Through this committee were sub- 
mitted the names of fifteen men and women, prom- 
inent residents of the town, who consented to form a 
board of incorporators, and to take the necessary 
legal steps to organize a public library association. 

The next development was the offer by Hon. J. 
H. Barker, of a contribution of one^third the entire 
cost of a library building to be erected by the sub- 
scriptions of the citizens. A soliciting committee 
was appointed, and so great * was the enthusiasm 
shown that $30,000 was secured. A beautiful building 



LIBRARIES. x 401 

of Bedford stone, classic in architecture, and with in- 
terior furnishings of marble and of quarter-sawed oak, 
was erected on a centrally-located corner lot, opposite 
the city high school. The building was fitted through- 
out with the best library furniture and appliances 
and most conveniently arranged for the purposes of 
a modern library. It contains not only the usual 
reading, reference, book and delivery rooms, but a 
finely lighted children's room, a room for the use of 
students, and one for the use of literary clubs. It is 
probably one of the best equipped libraries of north- 
ern Indiana. Under the law of the State, the library 
is supported by taxation, and has in addition a small 
book-fund, endowed by private gifts. 

In the summer of 1897, Miss Marilla W. Freeman, 
a graduate of the University of Chicago, undertook 
the organization of the new library, and in October 
the library was thrown open to the public with 
3,000 volumes on its shelves. The annual statement 
of the librarian for May 1st, 1900, reports 5,500 vol- 
umes in the library, and a circulation for the year of 
nearly 40,000 volumes. The library met with imme- 
diate popularity and success, and has become one of 
the most important factors in the educational life of 
Michigan City. It is in close> touch with the work 
of the public schools, as well as with the literary clubs. 
Through its collection of technical works, it has made 
special efforts to attract and hold the interest of the 
employees of the various factories and other indus- 
trial centers of the city. Its gifts have included not 
only books and money, but a considerable number of 
fine pictures for the adornment of its walls. 

WINAMAC LIBRARY. 

At Winamac was organized a few years ago the 
People's Library Association. The membership fee 
authorizing the use of the books of the library is one 
dollar a year. It is not, therefore, a free public li- 
brary. ' | r I 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



OUR INDUSTRIES. 

For the first few years northwestern Indiana was 
a grazing and agricultural region and raising cattle 
and grain were the main industries. Exports of pro- 
duce commenced about 1840, grain and pork (pork 
meaning hogs dressed ready for the meat market) 
were the first to he sent from the farms, and then 
cattle. There were, however, exports, and in im- 
mense quantities for the number of inhabitants, of 
quite a different kind. These exports were wild game, 
"prairie chickens" so called, in great numbers, wild 
ducks, wild geese, quails, rabbits, and also very much 
fur. This class of exports, costing nothing but the 
taking, helped many pioneer families in the way of 
better living. Soon, added to the grain and cattle 
and pork, there were sent from the farms butter, eggs 
and poultry, hay, some wool, some honey, and some 
sheep. And at length many horses. Grass seed and 
fruit soon increased the list of exports. As giving 
some idea of the amount the following records are 
here inserted : H. C. Beckman of Brunswick, in Lake 
County, as early as 1872, in the regular course of his 
trade, bought in a single day thirty-seven hundred 
eggs and about three hundred pounds of butter. In 
five months of that year he bought for export 5,600 
flozen of eggs and of butter, for the year, 10,000 



OUR INDUSTRIES. 403 



pounds. About $50,000 was in that year paid out in 
Lake County for butter and eggs alone, by the dif- 
ferent merchants. Judge David Turner made out a 
list of the exports of Lake County for the year 1883, 
when Lake County was becoming a large exporting 
county, and it will serve as an illustration of what the 
other counties had also to a great extent become as 
a large food producing and exporting region. Oats, 
the figures denote bushels, 1,000,000; potatoes, 150,- 
000; rye, 19,857; clover seed, 2,000;; hungarian seed, 
9,000; millet seed, 4,500; berries, 4,629; the figures 
now denote pounds, butter, 544,529; cheese, 220,000; 
butterine, 3,000,000; wool, 26,553; honey, 26,629; 
milk, 285000 gallons; hogs, 16,526 head; cattle, 16,- 
000 head; calves, 1,000; horses, 1,500; chickens, 
4,397 dozen ; eggs, 200,000 dozen ; hay, 65,803 tons ; 
ice, 65,000 tons; sand, 23,000 car loads; brick and 
tile, 13,000,000; wood, 100 car loads; moss, 50 car 
loads; cattle slaughtered and shipped, 130,000 head. 
On ice and sand shipped from Clarke on the 
Calumet, in business months, the amount paid 
for freight was $150 each day, or $3,000 each month. 
And these figures given above are for one county and 
one year. 

SOME AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 

Number of bushels of corn raised in these coun- 
ties in 1898. After the name of each county are given 
the figures denoting the bushels, and the figures de- 
noting the yield in each county by the acre : Starke, 
717,535; 35- Lake, 1,365,156; 39. Porter, 1,431,720; 
40. La Porte, 1.528,052; 31. Pulaski, 1,707,545; 35. 
Newton, 2,434,672; 34. Jasper, 2,435,392; 36. White, 
2,584,749; 31. It thus appears that either Porter has 



404 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

the best corn land or the best farmers. The number 
of acres in Porter County planted with corn was 35,- 
793, and the average yield was exactly forty bushels 
for an acre. Lake County, with an average of thirty- 
nine bushels comes next. La Porte and White are 
alike averaging only thirty-one bushels. 

In the production o'f oats for the year 1897 New- 
ton, Jasper, and White excel, each producing over a 
million of bushels. Indeed, Newton was the second 
oat county in the State, Jasper the third, and White 
the fifth. Benton County alone exceeded Newton, 
and Tippecanoe was in advance of White. 

Our other five counties produced the same year 
over half a million bushels of oats each. So it is evi- 
dent that in 1897 northwestern Indiana produced 
more than six million bushels of oats. For that same 
year, 1897, the hay crop of these counties, taking no 
account of the immense quantities of wild or native 
grass made into hay on the Kankakee marsh lands, 
was the following (the number of thousands of tons 
only is given): Pulaski, 12,000; La Porte, 21,000; 
Porter, 30,000; Lake, 39,000; White, 39,000; Starke, 
43,000; Newton, 65,000; Jasper, 97,000. These are 
not, except La Porte, large producing wheat counties, 
yet somewhat is raised in each. The following fig- 
ures give the number of bushels for 1898 : La Porte, 
867,186; Pulaski, 316,044; White, 258,765; Porter, 
197,532 ; Starke, 69,120; Jasper, 45,862 ; Lake, 30,582 ; 
Newton, 20,736. 

A few more figures ought still to be of interest 
giving the number of horses in each county : Starke, 
3,328; Newton, 6,086; Pulaski, 6,386; Porter, 6,950; 
Lake, 7,609; Jasper, 8,210; La, Porte, 9,048; White, 
9,442. And the number of cows in these counties 



OUR INDUSTRIES. 405 



was in 1897, the year for which the horses are given: 
Starke, 3,344; Newton, 4,204; Jasper, 4,604; Pulaski, 
5,247; White, 5^399; Porter, 8,218; La Porte, 9,053; 
Lake, 9,832. 

The difference in the quantity of Irish potatoes 
raised in these counties in 1897 is somewhat surpris- 
ing. The number of thousands of bushels only is here 
given and the figures are, for Jasper, 67; La Porte, 
6j\ Newton, 47; Porter, 63; Pulaski, 31 ; Starke, 41 ; 
White, 11, and Lake, 546,921, or more than, half a 
million of bushels. In 1899 E. W. Dinwiddie of 
Plum Grove raised a thousand bushels. In accounting 
for this great difference it should be borne in mind 
that Lake County touches that great city, Chicago, 
and extends from it in a southeast direction over the 
Calumet region, and that the soil (the sand, the marsh, 
the peat beds), of the Calumet bottom and of the 
Cady marsh, especially of that valley which is so often 
covered with water in the spring time, seems pecu- 
liarly adapted for vegetables, such as potatoes, cab- 
bage, onions, and parsnips ; and then, there is quite 
a large settlement of Hollanders along that valley, and 
they and families of other nationalities make it a spe- 
cial business to raise vegetables for the Chicago mar- 
ket. Considering these facts, looking thus over that 
great garden region of the Calumet, we need not be 
surprised that in Lake County should be produced 
a half million bushels of potatoes in a season. How 
many thousand heads of cabbages go into Hammond 
and into Chicago in a season, it is not likely any one 
has reckoned up. It may be further added here that 
the number of acres in potatoes in Lake for 1897 was 
more than eight thousand and in White only four 
hundred and forty-nine. 



406 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

These figures for products, thus far given in this 
chapter, are from the "Indiana Agricultural Reports" 
and are supposed to be accurate, as they are from 
official reports compiled by J. B. Conner, chief of 
state bureau of statistics for Indiana. 

Hogs are raised in all these counties to some ex- 
tent, White taking the lead. The figures for the thou- 
sands are, as reported from the counties for 1897, and 
trom the same authority as above : Starke, 7 ; Lake, 
16; Newton 18 • Porter, 20; Pulaski, 22; Jasper, 24; 
La Porte, 25, and White more than 38 thousand. Not 
many sheep are now kept in this part of the State. 
Quite a large flock was brought into Lake County in 
1840 by Leonard Cutler, and the Mitchells, and others 
had some large flocks about 1865, but there was not 
much encouragement for keeping them. In these 
later years the largest flocks have probably been those 
of Hon. Joseph A. Little and of Oscar Dinwiddie of 
Plum Grove, and of Harvey Bryant. Now, or in 1897, 
the number of sheep and lambs in Lake County was 
2 ; 6oo, and a few over, in Porter 6,000, in La Porte 
12,000, in Starke i,8oo, in Pulaski 8,700, in White 
5,700, in Jasper 3,200, and in Newton 2,500. 

In the great sheep raising county of Indiana, 
Noble, there were in this same year more than forty 
thousand, while at the same time there were in Noble 
but six thousand and two cows, and Lake and La 
Porte had more than nine thousand each. The in- 
dustries in different counties differ sometimes very 
much. 

Prices of agricultural products have varied very 
much as the years have passed along. A sudden rise 
in the price of grain took place in the spring of 1835 
which gave an opportunity for the first grain specu- 



OUR INDUSTRIES. 407 



lation, so far as is known, among the pioneers. Two 
of the early settlers of Crown Point, William Clark, 
afterward known as Judge Clark, having been elected 
associate judge, and William Holton, one of the ster- 
ling men of Lake County, who died a few years ago 
at an advanced age in California, bought oats in La 
Porte County at fifty cents a bushel. They intended 
to sow the oats ; but after reaching home and delaying 
a little time, they concluded it was too late in the sea- 
son to sow oats. They hauled the grain back to La 
Porte and sold it for one dollar and fifty cents a 
bushel. While the purchase was small in amount the 
percentage of profit was more than the board of trade 
men in Chicago generally make. Corn, oats, wheat, 
at that time brought the same price. 

For the encouragement that farmers received in 
endeavoring to settle up the wild lands, one example 
is the following: "George Parkinson, of South East 
Grove, in the winter of 1839 and 1840, sold pork in 
Michigan City for $1.50 a hundredweight, hauling it 
some forty miles. He sent a load of grain. The pro- 
ceeds returned, the man who did the hauling received 
his pay, and about fifty cents were left." 

For several years, including 1844, the average 
price for wheat in the Chicago: market was about 60 
cents a bushel. In 1861 corn sold for 17 cents a 
bushel. In 1864 the price paid for corn at Dyer Sta- 
tion was 90 cents. When potatoes could be sold in 
the spring for 25 cents per bushel farmers thought it 
was a good price. That was before the days of pota- 
toe bugs in this longitude. For several years now 
they have often sold for a dollar. The following is 
for the year 1899: "Winamac Markets." Wheat, per 
bushel, 73 cents ; oats, 28 ; rye, 48 ; butter, per pound, 



408 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

i i cents; lard, 8; eggs, per dozen, n; flour, $12.10; 
chickens, 6 cents per pound ; turkeys, 7 ; ducks, 5 ; 
hams, 10; shoulders, 8; potatoes, per bushel, 60; 
hogs, per hundred, $3.40. 

The dairy business is a large branch of industry. 
Six trains take milk to Chicago each day, and the 
milk stands on these roads, besides the regular sta- 
tions, are many. It is not easy to ascertain the amount 
of milk shipped in a year nor its value to the farmers, 
but some idea may be obtained from the following 
figures : On the Monon line, in the summer, 180 cars, 
in October 130 each day, daily average 120. On the 
Pan Handle, summer of 1899, 140 cars, in October 
no; for the year, daily average 120. On the Erie 
road, summer 600, for the year, daily 500. On the 
Grand Trunk, daily, 400. On the Fort Wayne, daily, 
130. Number of cars shipped daily for the entire 
year, 1,290. This milk is shipped mostly from Porter 
and Lake counties. 

The creameries send off large amounts of butter 
beside the dairy-made butter sent from the homes. 
At Dyer, in Lake County, a creamery was started in 
1893. The average of butter made there is four thou- 
sand pounds each month. Average price for 1899, 20 
cents a pound. One thousand dollars, or more, each 
month is paid to< the farmers for the milk. 

At St. John, four and a half miles below, on the 
same road, the line called the Monon, is a still larger 
creamery. It may be safely said that twelve thou- 
sand dollars in a year is there paid out to the farmers. 
On the State line, six miles south of Dyer, is a third, 
much larger, where, to the farmers in Lake County 
is paid about a thousand dollars each month, and 
some four miles further south a fourth, where a like 



OUR INDUSTRIES. 409 



amount is paid out. This gives to the farmers on a 
strip of land along the west edge of Lake County, 
twelve miles long, and, perhaps, some three or four 
in width, an income for milk of about $50,000 in a 
year. It is quite an industry. 

At Hebron, in Porter County, there has been for 
some years a creamery which now uses about 9,000 
pounds of milk daily and pays to the dairymen about 
$1,000 each month. At Merrillville, in Lake County, 
is a cheese factory which has been doing a good busi- 
ness for several years. Active leaders in the milk in- 
dustry are, in Lake County, S. B. Woods, J. N. Beck- 
man, and C. B. Benjamin; and in Porter, Messrs. 
Wahl and Merrifield. 



HERDS OF CATTLE. 

For several years the finest herd of improved cat- 
tle in Lake County was kept by Thomas Hughes, tie 
took a large interest in the county fairs. In 1895 ne 
removed to Kansas and died there July 29, of that 
year, when about 59 years of age. H. C. Beckman 
and John N. Beckman, his son, had the next best herd, 
probably, in the county. The largest number of cattle 
in Lake County, 1,500 head, were kept by John Brown 
and his son, Neal Brown, in the winter of 1899 and 
1900. Large herds of cattle have been kept in the 
north part of Newton and Jasper counties, raised and 
kept mainly by men interested in the Chicago cattle 
market, and not as improved animals for milk and 
butter. In the south parts of Porter and La Porte 
counties, along the marsh, many cattle are kept, and 
in the north of Starke some are kept for milk and 
butter and for beef. 



410 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Near Rensselaer much attention has been given to 
raising fast horses. In West Creek township of Lake 
County the Hayden horses have been noted. They 
have usually been large and strong, drawing heavy 
loads. Many good horses have -been raised in Lake 
County. For several years there has been held in 
Crown Point, on one Tuesday of each month, a horse 
market attended by buyers from Chicago and else- 
where. It has been called the best horse market with- 
in quite a distance of Chicago. As raisers of improved 
breeds of hogs may be named George F. Davis & 
Co. of Dyer, "originators, breeders, and shippers of 
the famous Victoria swine, also breeders of cotswold 
sheep, shorthorn cattle, fancy land and water fowls." 
At the world's Columbian Exposition, in 1893, Mr. 
Davis took twenty-six different premiums on his Vic- 
toria swine, class 61, amounting in all to $550; and 
in class 178, fat stock, he took seven more premiums, 
amounting to $150. He also took premiums on sheep, 
amounting to $80, and on poultry and pigeons $56, 
making the entire amount of his premiums $836. It 
is probable that of sheep and hogs, a few, equal to 
any in the United States, have been owned at Dyer. 

Another noted raiser of improved hogs is John 
Pearce of Eagle Creek township. The variety which 
he keeps is known as Poland-China. In color these 
are black. The first improved hogs in Lake County 
were Berkshires. 

ICE AND SAND. 

The ice industry is for a short time an immense 
business. The great shipping counties are La Porte 
and Lake. 

The lakes of La Porte County have furnished large 



OUR INDUSTRIE?. 411 



amounts. No full estimate can be made. In Lake 
County besides the lakes, the Calumet and Kankakee 
rivers have furnished very many thousand tons. A lit- 
tle idea may be obtained, yet a faint one, from a record 
of work at Red Cedar Lake, southwest from Crown 
Point. Armour has there a large ice house, and there 
are other large ones. In January, 1892, about three 
weeks of good ice gathering was well improved. At 
Armour's were working about two hundred men, and 
at the south end of the lake one hundred. Work goes 
on at night at Armour's, as they use at his ice house 
electric light. The record is, that about sixty car loads 
a day were shipped from Armour's while the men were 
engaged filling as rapidly as they could the very large 
house. 

It is no wonder the water in that once beautiful lake 
is not as deep as it once was since such immense quan- 
tities of water in a solid form are shipped away every 
good ice year. The rains and melting snow do not fur- 
nish a supply sufficient to fill it up in the spring. 

The quantity of frozen water that is stored in the 
many large ice houses and sent to the cities in the sum- 
mer time can by no ordinary means be estimated. It 
is a business which the early pioneers had not consid- 
ered, and one which, in its magnitude, only the rail- 
roads make possible. 

Another very large industry is shipping sand, al- 
though that furnishes employment for the railroad 
working men and train men rather than for the citi- 
zens who own the sand-banks. 

Besides sand shipped from ridges and banks nearer 
to Chicago, for the last few years trains of cars have 
been busy endeavoring to remove from Michigan 
City that immense sand hill known as Hoosier Slide. 



412 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

At North Judson, in Starke County, is a singular 
industry, known as a "frog and turtle industry." Ac- 
cording to a writer in the North Judson News, "there 
is a great and growing demand for frogs," and from 
this place they are shipped "into the leading markets 
of the country." On the day when the "News" writer 
visited this establishment, he says that in one hour one 
hundred and fifty dollars was paid out for frogs, 
brought in sacks and in wagon loads. For several 
days they can be kept in barrels until they are shipped 
and the big pond near by now contains, the "News" 
writer says, "over three million frogs." He says little 
about the turtles or tortoises, but they also are bought 
and shipped. 

Quite a little business in this same line is done at 
Shelby, although there is as yet no large establish- 
ment there. From Shelby also, in some seasons, many 
mushrooms are shipped to Chicago. 

A much more attractive industry is the fruit busi- 
ness. In Pulaski County in 1880 there were in culti- 
vation in strawberries fifty-five acres. 

Quite a little fruit is raised in Starke County, not 
far from Round Lake. 

Apples and small fruits are raised quite extensively 
in Lake County, and fruit in Newton and in Jasper 
Counties. 

Around La Porte are fruit and berry farms from 
which large amounts are sent to market. 

In Pine township in Porter County cranberries 
still grow for market. In September, 1899, the fol- 
lowing item of news was written, which will give some 
idea of this industry. 

"The harvesting of the cranberry crop has begun 
and one hundred persons have been engaged for a 



OUR INDUSTRIES. 413 



week on the five Blair marshes in Pine township, * 
* picking the berries, and there remains about a 
week's work for them. The cranberries this year are of 
an unusually good quality and the crop is a large 
one." In Porter County is quite a fruit raiser, who is 
called an up-to-date farmer, Milton Phiel, who has ten 
acres of land in fruit, having on this land one thousand 
pear trees, five hundred winter apple trees, and five 
thousand strawberry plants. He has, besides fruit, 
thirty cows, and had in 1899 a thousand chickens. 

In Lake County the large berry raiser is H. H. 
Meeker of Crown Point. He has, near the town, ten 
acres in small fruit and in nursery grounds. He picked 
in 1899 of small fruit for market 10,310 baskets. In 
1900 he has picked 13,000. He sends off quite an 
amount of nursery stock. 

There is quite a nursery in Jasper County near 
Rensselaer. 

MANUFACTURING. 

Of course opening farms furnished the first occu- 
pation for the pioneers after some shelter was provided 
for the families and for the less hardy domestic 
animals. 

After shelter there was needed a food supply. 
And then some of the pioneers gave their attention, 
and almost from the very first, to putting up mills, first 
saw-mills, then grist-mills. This work as an industry 
prevailed largely in La Porte County, where were so 
many good mill-seats found, and in Porter County in 
the northern and central parts, in both which counties, 
for a time, they had a supply of white pine from the 
Lake Michigan sand hills, out of which to make lum- 
ber. In Lake County the earlier mills were south of 



414 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

the Calumet, and the pine trees of Lake were taken 
for the buildings of the young Chicago. Mills also 
were constructed on the Tippecanoe and Iroquois 
rivers, and in White, Pulaski and Jasper Counties, 
saw-mills were, in early days, quite a leading industry. 

In the line of manufactures factories of various 
kinds followed. But of these the larger establish- 
ments are now mostly not many miles from Lake 
Michigan, where are the largest towns and cities. 

The manufacturing towns are mainly : La Porte, 
Michigan City, Chesterton, Hobart, East Chicago, 
Whiting, and Hammond. 

At Valparaiso, which is a college town, there is 
now a mica factory employing ninety girls and twenty- 
seven men. "Two other concerns are enclosing fac- 
tory buildings 'which promise to employ about four 
hundred men." At Crocker, in Porter County, is a 
canning factory employing some forty or fifty persons. 
Tomatoes are put up here in large quantities. Crocker 
is on the Wabash railroad not far from the Lake 
County line. 

Among our large industries may be named the 
manufacture of brick, of tile, and of what is called 
terra cotta. Some of the pioneers made brick as early 
as 1840, and probably, in some neighborhoods, much 
earlier, but only for home use. In these later years it 
has become a large, and in some localities, a leading 
industry. 

In La Porte County two miles east of Michigan 
City is quite a large establishment where were made in 
1897 four and one half millions of brick. 

The special factories and large industries of La 
Porte and Michigan City are given in the notices of 
those cities. 



OUR INDUSTRIES. 415 



In Newton County some brick are made at Mo- 
rocco and at Beaver City, also at Mt. Ayr; but the 
large factories are at Goodland, where also tile is 
made, and at Brook where terra cotta lumber is made 
"for the Chicago market." This terra cotta lumber, 
so called, is not what is generally called lumber. It is 
made of three parts clay and one of sawdust. But the 
sawdust is afterwards burned out leaving a porous 
kind of brick which may be cut with tools and will 
hold nails and screws. 

In Jasper County brick for home use are made, 
also drain tile, near Rensselaer, at Remington, and 
near Pleasant Grove postoffice ; but in this county 
the clay industry is not large. 

Clay products are shipped into Starke Count}- in- 
stead of being sent out. 

In Lake County at Lowell and at Crown Point 
brick have been made for many years and also some 
drain tile, for the home market. Brick making com- 
menced near Crown Point, in 1841, when C. M. Ala- 
son burned the first kiln. *He made in the course of 
years several millions by the old and slow hand pro- 
cess. At Hobart is located the great brick shipping- 
interest of the county, where "in April, 1887, W. B. 
Owen began the making of terra cotta lumber and fire 
proof products," which with the Kulage Brick and 
Tile Works, forms the principal manufacturing inter- 
est of Hobart. Of the terra cotta the State Geologist 
says: "Sixty car loads a month are shipped to all 
parts of the United States, the value of the annual 
output being from $60,000 to $75,000." He further 
says that there is only one other factory of the kind 
in Indiana, which is at Brook in Newton County, and 
only one ui all the State of Illinois. The State Geolo- 



416 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

gist says of the five large downdraft kilns, each one 
hundred feet long, of the Kulage Company, that they 
"are probably the largest kilns of the downdraft type 
in existence," each being capable of holding 260,000 
brick. 

In Porter County brick are made at Hebron and 
Valparaiso and Porter, also at Garden City and Ches- 
terton. 

The State Geologist, W. S. Blatchley, to whose re- 
port in "Clays and Clay Industries," indebtedness is 
acknowledged for special information, says : "Near 
the junction of the Michigan Central and Lake Shore 
railways, at Porter, Indiana, is located the largest 
pressed front brick factory in the State." It "has been 
in operation since July, 1890." Amount of capital in- 
vested in this factory is about $300,000. An immense 
supply "of front brick of many colors" is furnished 
by this factory, and special shape bricks of a hundred 
different forms, several millions in all being kept con- 
stantly on hand.* 

One half mile east of this large factory is another 
establishment conducted by the Chicago Brick Com- 
pany, where "soft mud brick" are made for Chicago 
and for other markets at the rate of 35,000 a day for 
six months of the year. 

Near Chesterton not only brick but tile are made 
as also at Valparaiso and Hebron. 

The whole clay industry of Porter County requires 
the labor of many persons and secures the taking in 
and paying out of .large sums of money. Like the 
frozen water, which we call ice, and the sand, the clay 



* For a more full account see Reports. 



OUR INDUSTRIES. 417 



of Northwestern Indiana, brings in a large amount of 
money. 

Handling sand and clay and ice makes for us three 
great industries. At Whiting is one of the great oil 
refining establishments of the world, owned by the 
Standard Oil Company. The crude oil is conveyed ill 
two pipe lines running along the track of the Erie rail- 
way. One of these pipes burst in some way near 
Crown Point a few years ago, and quite a 
river of oil ran out before the break was mended. 
Some of the town inhabitants gathered up in barrels 
and vessels what oil they could store, and when the 
flow was entirely stopped the oil men set fire to the 
river. Then there was a grand sight. Such peculiar, 
black, and even beautiful, columns of smoke had never 
been seen in Crown Point before. Photographic 
views were taken which were highly prized. 

The number of oil tanks at Whiting cannot read- 
ily be counted. Many hundreds of persons are em- 
ployed in the oil works, and quite a city has grown up 
through this industry. 

At East Chicago hundreds are employed in carry- 
ing on these factories: ''Inland Iron and Forge Co.; 
Grasselli Chemical Works ; The East Chicago Foun- 
dry Co. ; Famous Manufacturing Co. ; Lesh, Proutt 
& Abbott Lumber Co. ; Treat Car Wheel Works ; 
Chicago Horseshoe Works ; Groves Tank Works ; 
Seymour Manufacturing Co. ; and East Chicago Tank 
and Boiler Works." These names have been taken 
from the East Chicago Globe, of "manufactories al- 
ready located" there. 

Hammond has five quite large industries. 

i. The G. II. Hammond Company Slaughter 
House. 



418 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

This, as the State Line Slaughter House, was com- 
menced about 1869. In 1872 about eighteen men were 
employed and three or four car loads of beef were 
shipped each day. 

In 1884 about three thousand head of cattle were 
butchered each week and the beef was sent to New 
England and to Europe. 

Now, in 1900, from five thousand to six thousand 
head of cattle and an equal number of hogs are put 
into shape for shipment each week. 

Number of persons employed fourteen hundred. 
It is not so easy to get information now but the num- 
bers given above came directly from the present sup- 
erintendent. 

2. The Pittsburg Spring Company. Number of 
men employed sixty-six. 

3. The Simplex Railway Supply Company. Num- 
ber of persons employed three hundred. 

4. The Canning Steel Plant. Number employed 
four hundred. 

5. Last and grandest of all, the W. B. Conkey 
Printing and Publishing Establishment. 

It is claimed that there is not another equal to it 
in the United States or in Europe ; and one who goes 
through the different rooms, sees the machinery at 
work, and looks at what is accomplished by human 
skill, may quite readily accept the statement. 

Hammond was just the place for such an immense 
industry, where room for buildings was abundant and 
where there would be no need for a second or third 
story, not suggesting a fourteenth. 

The rooms, as implied, are all on the ground and 
cover an area of eighteen or twenty acres. Some of 



OUR INDUSTRIES. 419 



them are hundreds of feet in their dimensions. In the 
main printing room are running forty- two presses. 

The folding and binding room is long and wide 
and high, with plenty of light from the sun-light with- 
out, and while the well-trained and nimble fingers of 
the girls who fold by hand accomplish rapid work, 
and show what trained human hands and eyes can do 
in acquiring a peculiar tact of manipulation, the amaz- 
ing if not fascinating features in the room are fixtures, 
the great folding machines, working as by clock work, 
folding up, hour after hour, the great sheets of six- 
teen pages, with the regularity of the movement of a 
finished chronometer. The invention of a self-binder 
for farming work was a great triumph of human in- 
genuity, but one may well stand amazed in looking 
upon the movements of a great folding machine. 

In the composing room appears also another won- 
der of human invention, the type setter. In the bind- 
ing room the processes of gilding and of putting on 
the modern marble edges are interesting. * 

The great driving wheel that furnishes the motion 
for so many machines and presses gives one a grand 
idea of power. And the mighty heater that keeps all 
these spacious rooms comfortable in zero weather is 
another grand illustration of concentrated and dif- 
fused force. 

This Conkey Company commenced work in Ham- 
mond in 1898. The number of persons now employed 
is eleven hundred. The amount of work turned out 
in a year amounts to three million dollars. 

* I visited this truly magnificent establishment March 
27, 1900, and was shown through the different rooms, having 
an opportunity to see these different processes, receiving 
all the courtesies and readily obtaining all the information 
that I could reasonably request. T. H. B. 



420 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

A natural question would be, Where can sufficient 
"copy" be found to keep the type setters busy, so as 
to keep forty presses running in one room, and to 
keep all those girls and folding machines and gilders 
and binders busy month after month in the binding 
room? And the answer is, it comes from all quar- 
ters, comes from everywhere. 

Books of various kinds are printed and published 
among them the American Encyclopaedia, Diction- 
aries, Story books for children, Catalogues, and many 
varieties of printed matter. 

A periodical is sent out each month called 

CONKEY'S HOME JOURNAL. 

Northwestern Indiana, in the line of clay products, 
of oil, of meat for shipment, and of "the art preserva- 
tive," certainly has some large establishments not to 
be surpassed, surely, by any others in Indiana. 

ADDENDA. 
The main industries of Crown Point, omitted in 
their proper place, are these: I. Making brick at 
the Wise brickyard; 2. Sash and blind factory, 
L. Henderlong & Co. ; 3. Making water tanks and 
cistern tubs, George Gosch; 4. Keilman factory, 
formerly Letz; 5. Cigar factories, four; 6. Crown 
Brewing Company, making lager beer. Also, 6. 
Raising poultry, Mrs. Underwood, T. A. Muzzall, 
Neil Coffin, I. Howland, and some others; and 
7. Hack carriage factory. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. 

It is probable that quite early in the history of 
the world men learned the benefits of uniting, for bet- 
ter self-protection and for improving their condition, 
in organizations or compacts which bore various 
names and had various purposes. Whether from the 
first age of civilization, before the time of what is 
known as Noah's flood, living through that period of 
destruction, any traces of man's earliest organizations 
have come down to us is not easily proved; nor yet 
can it be entirely disproved. In well-chosen words 
Professor John Russell in 1852, before a "large and 
highly intellectual audience" declared : "Long before 
the period of written history, there existed an order 
of men, known only to the initiated." "It is the oldest 
human society in existence. The dim twilight of the 
early ages rested upon its broad Arch, yet through 
every period of its existence has it been the agent of 
onward progress." While some may question these 
statements, it is true that some forms of organization, 
some societies, are sufficiently old, while others are 
distinctly modern, very, very new. 

The pioneers in these beautiful wilds retained their 
recollections of the old homes and of the associations 
and of the ties which had been pleasant to them there ; 
and so, along with civil society and the new formed 



422 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

ties of social life, along with schools and Sunday 
schools and churches, they soon began to organize lit- 
erary societies and to form lodges, Masonic and Odd 
Fellows, to organize, library associations, agricultural 
societies, temperance societies, and then Sons of Tem- 
perance Divisions and Good Templar Lodges ; and in 
later years study clubs and reading circles and the 
new orders of the present day came into existence in 
all our larger towns. No full account of all these need 
be here expected, but some mention of these organiza- 
tions belongs very certainly to our history. 

One of the earliest, so far as appears, the earliest 
organization, was formed before we had much civil 
government. It has been incidentally mentioned in 
an early chapter. 

It was called the "Squatters' Union of Lake Coun- 
ty ;" was organized July 4, 1836; and the original rec- 
ord says, "At a meeting of a majority of the citizens 
of Lake County, held at the house of Solon Robinson." 
The constitution adopted consists of a preamble and 
fourteen articles, is quite lengthy, is well written, and 
speaks well for the 'moral sentiments of these squat- 
ters. "Attached to it are 476 signatures." *, 

No evidence has been found that any other of our 
counties had a similar organization. 

Literary societies and temperance organizations 
were among the earliest in these counties ; although 
in 1838 was organized the Porter County Library As- 
sociation, elsewhere mentioned. 

In June, 1841, by the efforts of Solon Robinson, 
Rev. Norman Warriner, and Hervey Ball, was organ- 



*The Claim Register, the oldest document of Lake 
County, containing the constitution of that Union and the 
names attached, is in my possession. T. H. B. 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. 423 

ized the Lake County Temperance Society. It con- 
tinued in existence about nine years, was for its day a 
grand organization, and gave place to a Division of 
Sons of Temperance. 

That this organization succeeded well financially 
is evident, for over the door of the Court Street school 
house, a brick structure, on a memorial stone, may 
now be read : "In memory of Crown Point Division, 
Xo. 133, Sons of Temperance, who donated $1,000 to 
the erection of this building, 1859." 

The number of literary societies, organized in the 
course of these many years, has surely never been 
counted. In nearly every township of Lake County 
one or more has had an existence, and probably the 
same has been true in the other counties ; and for 
many of the young people, they accomplished in 
former years much good. Other organizations now 
take their places, or the public schools furnish for the . 
pupils greater means of improvement, and, in some 
communities, the young people are now without the 
means of self-cultivation which these societies fur- 
nished. These belong largely to the past, and valuable 
as they were, and dear as their memories are in the 
hearts of some yet living, useful as they were to many 
who are now in active life, their names, even, cannot 
be recorded here. If some names were given, others 
would of necessity be omitted; and so only this tribute 
of praise and this record of the sure fact of much en- 
joyment and much benefit having been derived from 
our scores and probably hundreds of literary societies, 
existing in the first thirty or forty years of settle- 
ment, are all in regard to them that can be placed on 
this page. Bright on "memory's walls" some of their 
scenes will linger long. 



424 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

One exception to the statement above is here made 
as a record appears, on a page that is "out of print," 
of a memorable discussion on Saturday evening, Feb. 
5, 1870, considered at the time a grand discussion of a 
grave and great question. The question was Ought 
women to exercise the right of suffrage? The Orchard 
Grove Literary Society met that evening with the 
South East Grove Society. "Orchard Grove took 
the affirmative, represented on the floor by Messrs. 
Blakeman, Curtis, Jones, and Warner. South East 
Grove supported the negative, and was represented by 
Messrs. Benjamin, W. Brown, John Brown, and B. 
Brown. * * The house was densely packed, stand- 
ing room being scarcely ifound for the crowds that 
assembled. Excellent order was observed nevertheless 
during the entire evening." The judges for that even- 
ing decided in favor of the negative. 

Many such interesting discussions of important 
questions may no doubt be recalled to mind by some 
who are now on the shady side of life's meridian. 

SECRET SOCIETIES OR ORDERS. 

Of these called "secret," although not with entire 
propriety, as their places of meeting and members are 
known or may be known, the Lodges of Free Masons 
stand first. In Valparaiso the first one was organized 
about 1840. It was "No. 49." There were ten charter 
members. Nine charter members, about 1850, united 
to form Porter Lodge. Of this Rev. Robert Beer of 
Valparaiso, says, "the order has been verp flourishing 
and has kept itself very pure." Since 1840, masonic 
lodges have been organized in all our larger towns ; 
and they have been followed by the lodges of Odd 
Fellows, of Foresters, Modern Woodmen, Knights 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. 425 

of Pythias, Catholic Foresters, Daughters of Rebecca, 
Eastern Star, W. C T. U., and other temperance 
organizations, Rathbone Sisters, Daughters of Lib- 
erty, Maccabees, Imperial Guild, and many others, for 
men and for women ; and then by the various clubs, 
not altogether what are called secret societies, but 
organizations that usually have present only their own 
members. Among these are many ladies' clubs for 
various purposes. One of these at Michigan City has 
a name that belonged to an organization in Lake 
County many years ago, which was, so far as known, 
the first of its kind in Northwestern Indiana. It was 
called The Cedar Lake Belles-lettres Society. The 
one at Michigan City is the Belles-lettres Club. That 
Society — young people did not form clubs in those 
days — was organized in 1B47. It met only once each 
month, and the chief attention of its members was 
given to writing. One of the memorable addresses 
delivered before these belles-lettres students and their 
friends was by Solon Robinson, author of "The Will." 
"The Last of the Buffaloes," and other stories, in 
which address he paid a high compliment to the cul- 
ture he found to be among the members, and referred 
to his having met the Indians for some consultation 
where they were living then. 

The corresponding secretary at that time was noted 
for her beautiful penmanship. 

Thus old names in time come round again as 
though they were new. 

Study Clubs, Reading Clubs, Pleasure Clubs, Mu- 
sic Clubs, Commercial Clubs, and various kinds of 
clubs, are in our towns and cities now. 



426 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 

The Lake County Agricultural Society was organ- 
ized by the adoption of a constitution, August 30, 
1 85 1. The committee reporting constitution were, 
Hervey Ball, John Church, and David Turner. The 
first officers were, Hervey Ball, President; William 
Clark, Vice President; J. W. Dinwiddie, Treasurer; 
Joseph P. Smith, Secretary. For six years the same 
President and Secretary were re-elected. The society 
was strictly agricultural. The first county fair was 
held Thursday, October 28, 1852. The first directors 
were: Henry Wells, A. D. Foster, Michael Pearce, 
H. Keilman, Augustine Humphrey, and William N. 
Sykes. 

The Porter County Agricultural Society was or- 
ganized, so far as adopting a constitution, June 14, 
185 1, committee on constitution being, William C. 
Talcott, David Hughart, W. W. Jones, H. E. Wood- 
ruff, Aaron Lytic. In September directors were ap- 
pointed and probably other officers. The first fair was 
held on Wednesday, October 29, 1851. About four 
hundred persons were present. First Directors : W. 
A. Barnes, William C. Talcott, Azorien Freeman, H. 
E. Woodruff, H. A. K. Paine, W. M. Jones, A. B. 
Price, Walker McCool, and Ruel Starr. 

The White County Agricultural Society organized 
December 7, 1857. The first county fair held in 1858. 

The Pulaski County Agricultural and Mechanical 
Society was organized in 1872. 

For other Agricultural Societies dates or data 
have not been found. 

GRANGES. 

In August, 1867, there was formed in Washington 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. ' 427 

City an organization called 'Patrons of Husbandry." 
It may quite safely be claimed that this organization 
came into existence through the efforts and influence 
of a citizen of Lake County, the founder of Crown 
Point, Solon Robinson. The following statements are 
offered in evidence of this claim. 

Being interested in agricultural matters he com- 
menced to write articles for the Cultivator, a leading 
agricultural journal, one, perhaps the first, being 
dated, Lake C. H., July 12, 1837. In 1838 and 1839 
other communications followed, in 1840 as many as 
twelve, and in 1841 fifteen, and still others in other 
years. He also wrote for other agricultural papers. 

"These various articles, by their style and from 
their locality, secured many readers, gained for then 
author much celebrity, and made his name familiar 
to very many farmer homes." 

In March, 1838, he proposed to form an "Amer- 
ican Society of Agriculture." In April, 1841, he wrote 
an address "to the farmers of the United States," send- 
ing it out through the columns of the Cultivator. He 
proposed to make, that same year of 1841, an exten- 
sive agricultural tour, and made it, passing through 
several states, calling on many agricultural men. In 
October of 1841 an editorial in the Cultivator said: 
"It gives us great pleasure to state that our friend, 
Solon Robinson, Esq., the zealous and able promoter 
of industry, and the original projector of a National 
Agricultural Society, has safely arrived at Washing- 
ton, and that on the fourth of September a meetirg 
was held in the hall of the Patent Office, at which 
the incipient steps for the formation of such a society 
were taken." Much more the editor adds, not needful 
in supporting this claim, only the closing words may 



428 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

be given, "and we cannot doubt his reception among 
his agricultural friends in the East and North" — iMr. 
Robinson had made a tour of some extent before 
reaching Washington — "will be such as to convince 
him that they will not be behind those of any portion 
of the Union in a cordial support to his great under- 
taking." This effort for a National Agricultural So- 
ciety, the credit for which belongs to Lake County, 
did not accomplish much. The country was not ready 
then for a permanent organization ; but in other years 
friends of the farming community took hold of the 
same idea, and out of their suggestions and plans 
grew the Patrons of Husbandry and the Grange 
movement. 

The plan includes a National Grange, State 
Granges, and Subordinate Granges. 

In Lake County there were organized, June 28, 
1871, Eagle Grange No. 4, members in 1872 eighty; 
October 12, 1871, Lowell Grange, No. 6, also with 
eighty members in 1872; Le Roy Grange in 1872 with 
twenty-six members. And before September, 1873, 
five others : Winfield, 41 members, Center, 57 ; Hick- 
ory, 40; West Creek, 25, and Ross, 27. Total mem- 
bership in Lake County, 388. In September, 1873, 
was held at Crown Point, a Grange celebration. The 
gathering was large and from nearly all parts of the 
county. Some probably came from Porter. The pro- 
cession of teams in close ranks, each Grange by itself 
with its banner, was reported to have been over two 
miles in length. This movement extended into the 
Southern States, where a great interest at first was 
taken in it, others besides farmers and planters finding 
a place in its ranks. Some other celebrations were 
held in Lake County, and a large one at Hebron. Yet 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. 429 

in a few years the organizations ceased to be kept up. 
About two years ago, about 1898, the interest revived 
and there is now a flourishing Grange at Crown Point, 
organized in February, 1899, and also one was organ- 
ized or reorganized at Plum Grove. 

How many are now in these counties has not been 
ascertained. 

TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS. 

Besides the annual county institutes held by the 
county superintendents according to the provisions 
of the Indiana School Law, the teachers in the coun- 
ties have formed voluntary associations subject only 
to their own regulations. These were organized : In 
Pulaski County, in 1876 ; in Jasper, in 1879 > m Lake, 
in 1883; in Starke, in 1886. The dates of organiza- 
tion in the other counties are not at hand. 

According to the Third Annual Report of the Pub- 
lic Schools of Pulaski County, sent out in 1898, J. H. 
Reddick, County Superintendent, and N. A. Murphy, 
Secretary. "The twenty-first annual session of the Pu- 
laski County Teachers' Association," was held at Win- 
amac "November 26 and 27, 1897." This would bring 
the first one back to 1876. According then to one 
mode of reckoning this association was organized 
in 1876. 

The enrollment for 1897 was 118. The receipts 
as reported amounted to $129.67, and the expendi- 
tures to the same sum. Among the expenses as 
reported are, to one instructor $35.35, and to another 
$29.70, and for room rent $5.00. Of the instructors 
one was from Purdue University. Devotional exer- 
cises were conducted each morning by resident min- 
isters. Secretary of the Association Grace Wharton. 



430 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

OLD SETTLERS' ASSOCIATIONS. 

i. The La Porte County Association was organ- 
ized November 20, 1869. 

2. The White County Association was organized 
at the court house August 16, 1873. A residence of 
only twenty-one years required for membership. 

3. The Lake County Association was organized at 
the court house July 24, 1875. A constitution was 
adopted and the names of members enrolled. The 
first meeting was held at the Old Fair ground, Sep- 
tember 25, 1875. 

4. The Jasper County Association was also organ- 
ized in 1875, the first meeting of the settlers being held 
in a grove October 9, 1875, which was probably the 
day of organization. The first president was William 
K. Parkison, the Secretary was John McCarthy of 
Newton County. Names of the original members are 
the following, all settling between 1834 and 1840, the 
figures following each name denoting the number of 
years of the residence of each in the county : "David 
Nowles 41, A. W. Bingham 40, Jackson Phegley 40, 
Stephen Nowles 39, W. W. Murray 39, S. P. Sparling 
39, S. H. Benjamin 38, W. K. Parkison 38, Thomas 
Robinson 37, Jared Benjamin 37, S. C. Hammond t>/, 
H. A. Barkley 37, Joseph Spalding 36, Thomas R. 
Barker 35, Nathaniel Wyatt 35, Willis J. Wright 35, 
William Dougherty 35, Malinda Spitler 40, Jane 
Nowles 40, Mrs. Augustus Bingham 40, Mary Welsh 
39, Julia R. Sparling 39, Amze Martin 38, Rhoda 
Ermin 38, M. Robinson 38, Phebe Nowles 37, Mary 
Parkison 37, Sarah Boice 37, Pamelia Cockerill 35, 
Minerva Wright 35, Elizabeth Benjamin 35." Some 
of the above named persons are citizens of Newton 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. 431 

County, and this seems to have been an organization 
for the two counties. An examination of the list of 
signatures shows that the men signed first in the order 
of their dates of residence, and then the women in 
the same order. 

5. The Porter County Association was planned 
May 26, 1 88 1, at a gathering of old settlers to cele- 
brate, at the home of Georg'e C. Buel of Valparaiso, 
the seventieth anniversary of his birthday. It was 
there decided that persons over forty-five years of age, 
residents for twenty-five years of Porter County, 
should be considered "old settlers." 

The organization was still further perfected by a 
committee of thirteen citizens who met June 25th, 
and adopted five articles of association, restricting 
membership to those who had been residents twenty- 
five years before July 1, 1881, and that all such who 
were over forty-five years of age, should by signing 
the articles of the association be entitled to all its 
benefits along with their children. September 17th 
was appointed for the first public meeting. On that 
day some five hundred met on the public square, 
where there were large forest trees to give shade, and 
then completed their organization by the election of 
officers. The public exercises were opened with prayer 
by Rev. W. J. Forbes. An address of welcome was 
given by Hon. J. N. Skinner, and singing and short 
addresses, eighteen in number, followed. 

At the second meeting, September, 1882, the open- 
ing prayer was by Rev. Robert Beer, the address of 
welcome by Mayor T. G. Lytle, many short addresses 
were made, the list of old settlers who had died was 
read by H. Hunt, and the officers were re-elected. "A 
large crowd was present," much interest was mani- 



432 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

fested ; but, for some reason, the organization has not 
flourished. 

6. An Association was organized in Pulaski Coun- 
ty, September 15, 1879, but it was not kept up. 

7. A separate organization, an Association for 
Newton County, was organized at Mount Ayr, July 
25, 1899. It is likely to prosper and to live. 

A more extended notice of the La Porte County 
Old Settlers' Association, the oldest, the largest, the 
most complete of all, as a social organization, has been 
reserved for this page. 

A call for a meeting of "old settlers" was issued in 
1869, to which fifty-five names were attached, names 
of well known, reliable, substantial citizens of the 
county, requesting old settlers to meet November 20, 
1869. One hundred and eight met that day in Hunts- 
man Hall, in the city of La Porte, registered their 
names, place and date of birth, and date of settlement 
in the county, in a book which had been prepared for 
that purpose, perfected an organization, and elected 
officers for the coming year. Thirty-three years resi- 
dence in the county was required for membership, no 
restriction as to age being made. Not only was mem- 
bership restricted to this term of residence in the 
county, but also attendance at all the annual gather- 
ings, except that husbands might bring their wives, 
and also wives their husbands, and at length the priv- 
ilege of attending the annual meetings was extended 
to ministers and editors and a few invited guests. It 
was designed and carried on very exclusively by old 
settlers and for old settlers. General Joseph Orr and 
Hon. C. W. Cathcart were, among others, very active 
and earnest in making the association a true success. 
The latter was the first president and the former the 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. 433 

first treasurer. The organization took place forty- 
years after the first settlement. At the meeting in 
1870, which was on the 226. of June, five hundred were 
present. 

Their "second annual re-union," some one knew 
how to count — was June 22, 1871, about seven hun- 
dred were present. Those who arrange for the meet- 
ings endeavor usually to meet on the longest day of 
the year, either June 21st or 22d. Besides singing, 
prayer, short addresses, and sometimes orations, the 
list is read by some one, of those who have died during 
the year. In June, 1875, sixty names were read from 
the death roll, a few of them, however, not having 
been reported the year before. In 1876 only thirty 
were reported. In 1877 the record is : "The Hon. C. 
W. Cathcart and General Joseph Orr, who had been 
for so long filling the offices of President and Treas- 
urer, respectively, declined a re-election." In 1874 
eight pioneers had appeared upon the platform, all 
of whom were over eighty years of age. Among these 
was General Orr. His death was reported in 1878. 

The Lake County Old Settlers' Association differs 
in one respect from all the others. Besides the officers 
which the others have, President, Secretary, Treasurer, 
it has another called Historical Secretary, who is ex- 
pected to keep a record of all events during the year, 
supposed to be of interest to the members of the asso- 
ciation, and these he reports each year. Then, every 
five years, these reports are printed for the members, 
and thus Lake County history is recorded as well as 
made, year by year. It is believed that Lake County 
now has in print the most complete local history of 
any county in Indiana. 

There is an organization, belonging to Porter and 



434 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Lake Counties, that is, perhaps, unique. It is known 
as the Dinwiddie Clan. It is composed of members of 
the Dinwiddie families, some of whom were pioneer 
settlers in La Porte, in Porter, and in Lake Counties, 
who trace their descent up, through four David Din- 
widdies — in some of the lines there are six in succes- 
sion — to an ancestor known as David Dinwiddie the 
first. Then through him they trace, but without the 
historic records, back to John Din of Scotland, who 
received from his king for a meritorious act one hun- 
dred pounds in money and the addition to his name of 
woodie, so that his name became John Dinwoodie, 
written afterwards in various forms.* Or, if not 
surely to him, then they trace to Allen Dinwithie of 
Scotland, the chief of whose clan, Thomas, was slain 
in Dinwiddie's tower in 1503 by the Jardins,, by whom 
also it is supposed, the Laird of Dinwiddie was assas- 
sinated in Edinburgh in 15 12. 

Further facts in regard to this organization can be 
sufficiently obtained from the following published no- 
tice, with only this additional statement that the 
"Clan" in Lake and Porter Counties owes its existence 
as an organization to efforts and researches of Oscar 
Dinwiddie of Plum Grove; and that the members of 
the organization have made arrangements for the pre- 
paration of a book giving the Dinwiddie family 
records. 

4 'THE DINWIDDIE REUNION. 

On Saturday, September 4, 1897, the members 
of the Dinwiddie Clan met at Plum Grove for their 



* I have seen a list of forms of this name, one hundred and 
thirty in number, which list was sent by Thomas Dinwiddy, an 
architect of Greenwich, London, to, Qscar Dirjwiddie of Plum 
Grove. I- H. B. 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. 435 

fourth annual reunion. The grove in which they met 
between the home of Mr. E. W. Dinwiddie and the 
home of Mr. I. Bryant, is a delightful place for such 
a gathering. The shade is abundant, and yet the grove 
is quite open and airy, the trees, many of them hick- 
ory, are quite tall and thrifty, and the ground was 
clean and neat in its appearance. There were nice 
places for hammocks, for swings, and smooth and 
open places for croquet grounds. The table for the 
dinner was one hundred and twenty-five feet in length 
and provided on each side with seats, seating com- 
fortably one hundred and twenty persons. There were 
present this year one hundred and forty, among them 
those who may be called the chaplains of the Clan, 
Rev. J. N. Buchanan, of Hebron, and Rev. T. H. Ball, 
of Crown Point, with their wives, also, as an invited 
guest, Mrs. Crawford, of South East Grove. The 
members had beautiful badges, green and golden, from 
Newark, New Jersey, furnished with a golden pin and 
a center piece representing a log cabin in a wood- 
The weather was delightful, although the roads were 
quite dusty. The sun shone warm and bright, yet 
under the shade of the trees the air was cool and com- 
fortable. It was a day for the enjoyment of nature, 
just as autumn is beginning, and for those who live on 
farms as well as for those whose homes are in the 
towns it is well, it is more than well, to go at times into 
the groves, which "were God's first temples" and "in 
the darkling wood, amid the cool and silence," to rest, 
enjoy, commune with nature, and to worship. 

In social intercourse, in resting and enjoying, 
greeting kindred, and in the sports of children, this 
day was mostly spent. Some business was transacted, 
officers for the coming year were elected. Mr. L. W. 
Vilmer was present with his camera and took a fine 
picture of the assembled group, and as the evening 
hours drew near the families left the delightful retreat 
to return to their duties and their homes. It is need- 
less to say how abundant and excellent was the dinner, 
how delightful the social enjoyment of all, " 



THE KANKAKEE REGION. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

A paper on the Kankakee River, its marsh lands 
and islands, was prepared by Mr. John Brown, then 
Auditor of Lake County for the semi-centennial cele- 
bration of 1884. As not many are better acquainted 
with that region than is he, and not many have a 
larger interest in it than he has, no better service can 
be done for the Kankakee history up to 1884 than to 
reprint that paper here. It is taken from "Lake 
County, 1884." Pages 185, 186, 187. 

The source of the Kankakee River is in St. Joseph 
County, this State, and from its source to where it 
crosses the State line at the southwest corner of our 
county, is about seventy-five miles. It is a slow slug- 
gish stream with a fall of from one to one and one 
half feet to the mile in this State. It being very 
crooked and the land on either side being low and 
marshy, the water moves on very slowly, and these 
low lands, forming what is familiarly known as the 
Kankakee Marsh, are for quite a period of time each 
year covered with from one to three feet of water. 
About six sections of this marsh land in the southeast 
corner of our county are covered, with timber, com- 
posed mostly of ash and elm with some sycamore and 
gum trees. The balance of these wet lands, running 
west to the State line, is open marsh, covered with a 
luxuriant growth of wild grasses, wild rice and flags. 
It is the home of the water fowl and musk-rat, and a 
paradise for hunters. The number of acres of this wet 
land in Kankakee valley in Lake County is about sixty 



THE KANKAKEE REGION. 437 

thousand, and in the seven counties through which 
the Kankakee river flows in this State is about six 
hundred thousand. Various projects have been pro- 
posed for draining this vast body of rich land, but up 
to this time but little has been accomplished. Messrs. 
Cass and Singleton now have two large steam 
dredges at work in this county on these lands, and 
it is expected that much good will result from their 
work. It is only a question of time when these lands 
will all be drained, as the Kankakee valley has a main 
elevation of ninety feet above Lake Michigan and one 
hundred and sixty feet above the waters of the Wabash 
River, and lying as they do at the very doors of Chi- 
cago, the greatest stock and grain market in the world, 
it would be strange if they long remain in their present 
almost worthless condition. Some portions of these 
lands are high dry ground, like an island in the ocean, 
and as they are, often entirely surrounded with water 
they are called islands. The most prominent of these 
in Lake county are Beach Ridge, Red Oak, Warner, 
Fuller, Ridge, Brownell, Lalley, Curve, Skunk, Long 
White Oak, Round White Oak, South Island, Wheeler 
Island, and many smaller ones. These islands have 
all once been covered with a heavy growth of timber ; 
but the farmers living on the prairies north of the 
marsh have stripped most of them of all that is desir- 
able. This hauling timber from these islands and from 
the ash swamp further east, a few years ago was the 
farmers' winter harvest, and was called swamping. I 
think the lives of many of the early settlers were short- 
ened by exposure and overwork in some of our bitter 
cold winters on these marshes. Cheap lumber and 
barbed wire now almost entirely take the place of the 
swamp timber for fencing, etc., and but little swamp- 
ing has been done for a number of years. Many of 
the islands where the timber has been cut off are now 
excellent grazing land and nearly all of the larger 
islands have one or more families living on them who 
keep stock, and some good farms are already under 
cultivation. Many old landmarks go to show that 



438 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

these lands bordering on the Kankakee River were, 
before the white man came, the favorite stamping 
grounds of the Indians. Many of the islands have 
their mounds and burying grounds, and on some of 
them are plats of ground which still hold the name of 
the Indians' gardens. I have never seen larger or 
finer grapes grown anywhere than some which I have 
gathered on these islands and which were planted by 
the Indians. On Curve Island on the west half of the 
northeast quarter, section 21, township 32, range 8, 
is the old Indian Battle Ground (so called). The 
entrenchments or breastworks cover a space of from 
three to four acres and are almost a perfect circle, with 
many deep holes inside the same. All this can be 
plainly seen to-day ; but when it was made or who did 
the work the oldest settler has not even a tradition. 

In a high sand mound a few rods southwest from 
the Battle Ground can be found by digging a few feet 
down plenty of human bones, old pottery, clam shells, 
flints, etc. Could these old mounds and relics of the 
past speak, they would no doubt tell a story well 
worth hearing. Fifty years from now, when the citi- 
zens of Lake County meet to celebrate our county 
centennial, these old land marks will be all obliterated, 
and the Red Man who once was the only human here 
will be forgotten except in history. And we too, who 
meet here to-day to celebrate this our semi-centennial, 
will then have left the shores touched by that myste- 
rious sea that never yet has borne on any wave the 
image of a returning sail. » 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



DRAINING MARSHES. 

In May, 1852, the Legislature of Indiana passed 
an act to provide for draining "Swamp Lands." In 
this part of the State it was mainly for draining the 
Kankakee Valley. 

In Pulaski County, not on the the Kankakee, ditch- 
ing began in 1854, and at about the same time in 
Lake County. 

The work of developing the Kankakee Region has 
<been a very different process from that which was 
needful in opening farms in the woodlands and on the 
prairies. Before the large areas of grass land could 
be made very useful, before the abodes of muskrats 
and of mink could be made into cornfields a large 
amount of ditching for drainage was needful. And 
when this all was done by spades in human hands it 
was slow work. But when steam dredge boats were 
put into operation, in Lake County in 1884, the pro- 
cess of ditch-making was vastly different. There are 
now, north of the river, many large ditches. About 
1870 draining quite extensively began in White 
County. And south of the river are now many large 
ditches. Of these the big Motion ditch in Jasper and 
White Counties has a channel, cut through a layer 
of solid rock for a" mite and a quarter, thirty feet wide 
and said to be from ten to twenty feet in depth. It 



440 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

was not a light undertaking. In Starke county sev- 
eral enterprising men have had ditches cut leading 
into Cedar Lake, now called Bass Lake, and into the 
river, so that now sugar-beet culture is taking the 
attention largely of the owners of the low lands. For 
raising beets that land is said to be excellent. One of 
these ditches in Starke is called Craigmile, and one 
the Kankakee River ditch. 

One of the large owners of Jasper County, of 
whom quite an extended notice will be given, has him- 
self laid out in improvements of various kinds more 
than six hundred thousand dollars. He has used his 
own dredge boat very successfully. 

Another large land holder south of the Kankakee 
river, of that land which was a part of the wild region 
of the large Jasper County, is Nelson Morris of Chi- 
cago. He holds about 23,000 acres; but, as he is a 
cattle man, he leaves his land for pasturage instead of 
draining and cultivating and building, and thus pro- 
ducing wealth by means of the dredge boat and loco- 
motive. 

Newton County has not received as much atten- 
tion in respect to internal improvements as some of 
the other counties, yet in the north part, some ditch- 
ing has been Hone, especially in draining Beaver Lake. 

In the north part of Newton County are large cat- 
tle ranches kept in the interest of cattle men of Chi- 
cago. 

Mrs. Conrad, an intelligent and enterprising wo- 
man, is successfully carrying on a large establishment, 
a farm or ranche, near Lake Village. Not far from 
Thayer is what is called the Adams ranch of about five 
thousand acres. 



DRAINING MARSHES. 441 



In Newton vegetables are raised and fruit and 
stock. 

In Lake County there are more than sixty, per- 
haps seventy miles, of dredge ditches in the Kankakee 
marsh lands; but these were not made by the indi- 
vidual owners of the land as such. They were paid for 
by a general assessment of the cost on all the lands 
supposed to be benefitted by the drainage. The main 
ditches are known as the Singleton ditch, named from 
W. F. Singleton, agent of the Lake Agricultural Com- 
pany, the Ackerman ditch, the Griesel ditch, and the 
Brown ditch. As a result of this draining large quan- 
tities of vegetables and of grain have already been 
produced. 

ROCK AT MOMENCE. 

Among other efforts made for draining the Kan- 
kakee Valley in Indiana, it was suggested and pro- 
posed to remove a ledge of limestone rock at a place 
in Illinois about seven miles below the State line, a 
place called by the early settlers the Rapids, after- 
wards named Momence. The matter was at length 
brought before the Indiana Legislature and an appro- 
priation of $40,000 was made in 1889 for the work 
proposed. Various objections and difficulties were, 
disposed of, James B. Kimball, Franklin Sanders, and 
John Brown becoming commissioners, who organized 
as a board November 12, 1891, with W. M. Whitten 
as Chief Engineer. A contract for performing the 
required work was entered into by the board of com- 
missioners and David Sisk of Westville, La Porte 
County, Indiana, for the removal of the stone in the 
ledge at the rate of "83 cents per cubic yard." A bond 
was executed by David Sisk with William R. Shelby of 



442 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the Lake Agricultural 
Company as securities, the sureties on the bond "be- 
ing worth," says the report to the Governor made in 
1893, "more than a million dollars." It was found 
that it would be "necessary to remove 68,819 cubic 
yards of the rock," and that some further appropria- 
tion would be needful. An additional appropriation of 
$20,000 was made, but by some means a change of 
contractors took place, and in 1893 J. D. Moran & 
Co., performed the work of removing the rock. 

This outlay of sixty thousand dollars appropriated 
by the General Assembly of Indiana, although ex- 
pended in Illinois, has been a large help to the drain- 
age of the Indiana part of the valley. 



Many of the citizens of Jasper County, both pio- 
neers and later settlers, have, dzr.e much in develop- 
ing the resources of the county and adding value to its 
once wild lands; but no one, in some lines, has done 
so much as Mr. B. J. Gifford, a resident at present in 
Kankakee, Illinois. Before detailing what he has 
accomplished and designs yet to do, some notice of 
his earlier life will be of interest. 

He was born on a farm in Kendall County, Illinois, 
in the poineer days of that part of the state ; was left 
motherless at six years of age ; at eleven he arranged 
to obtain some prairie Government land which he 
thought was valuable, but "his father thought it Worth- 
less," and so he gave up that first land arrangement 
land which afterward sold for one hundred and twen- 
ty-five dollars an acre, as many dollars as the price 
from the Government would have been in cents ; and 
at the early age of thirteen, "small in stature, without 



DRAINING MARSHES. 443 

any money, or clothes beyond what he wore/' he 
started out to make his own way in life. Seeing the 
necessity of obtaining an education, he set resolutely 
about that, and at the age of seventeen commenced 
teaching winters, and attending school summers, but 
when ready to enter college, designing to go into the 
sophomore class, the war of 1861 commenced and he 
enlisted in the Union Army as a private soldier, be- 
came captain, improved his leisure time in reading law 
books, served in the army through the war, was after- 
ward admitted to practice as a lawyer, and settled in 
Rantoul, Champaign County. Here he organized 
the Havana, Rantoul, and Eastern railroad Company, 
built the road, seventy-five miles in length, from Le 
Roy, Illinois, to West Lebanon, Indiana, sold his 
stock at a premium to Jay Gould, then became a 
member of a New York syndicate of which Cyrus W. 
Field was one, was made President of the company, 
bought the Cleveland and Marietta road for one mill- 
ion of dollars, July 2, 188 1, managed the road for 
about one year when the syndicate sold out "at a small 
profit," and he left "the railroad field." 

He had gained some experience and made some 
money and now gave his attention to the draining of 
wet lands. In 1884 he had secured of such lands, in 
Champaign County, seven thousand and five hundred 
acres. This he drained successfully, built dwelling 
houses for tenants, and went to Vermillion Swamp 
and purchased there a large tract of wet land which 
he also drained and upon which he built houses for 
tenants who cultivated the land on shares, and in 189 1 
he was nearly out of employment. He learned that 
in Jasper County there was a marsh that had no value 
"except to trade to some one who never saw it." As 



444 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

that, for him, was quite a recommendation, he con- 
cluded to look at it. In July, 1891, he purchased, for 
four and a half dollars per acre, of Thompson Broth- 
ers of Rensselaer, 6,700 acres in the Pinkamink marsh, 
and continued to purchase, as opportunity offered, till 
he now owns 33,000 acres in Jasper and about 1,000 
acres in Lake County. This land extends, with some 
small breaks, from a point about two miles north of 
the Kankakee River, "near the southeast corner of 
Lake County, to a point one mile south and five miles 
west of Francisville, embracing the bulk of 'Pinka- 
mink Marsh/ "Stump Slough,' 'Coppens Creek 
Marsh/ 'Buekhorn Marsh/ 'Mud Creek Marsh/ and 
a considerable section of the Kankakee Marsh." 

In the spring of 1892 a dredge boat was built and 
a second in October, and, for two years, these were 
kept at work, by day and by night, when one "was 
laid off," but the other is still kept at work. 

Mr. Gifford has constructed, in these years, about 
one hundred miles of dredge ditch, besides many 
smaller ditches. 

It is evident that he has had some experience in 
this line and he says: "The Pinkamink Marsh was, 
probably, the most difficult marsh to drain, in north- 
ern Indiana. It consisted, mainly, of a vast 'muck' 
bed, probably the largest in the world, and while 
ditches were easily made" the frequent passage of the 
dredge boat was needful until the banks settled and 
to some extent hardened. "The waters of this swamp 
are now under complete control." This muck land, in 
a few years, produces large crops of grass and grain, 
but at once will produce large crops of vegetables and 
especially of onions, from five hundred to seven and 
even eight hundred bushels, having been raised on 



DRAINING MARSHES. 445 

an acre. The expense of raising a crop of onions is 
placed at "fifty dollars per acre." Land so well 
adapted as this is for gardening will be too valuable 
soon for grain and grass. About one half of these 
drained marshes are already under cultivation, more 
than two hundred houses and barns for tenants have 
been built, the foundations of all the buildings being 
boulders found on the land; water being obtained 
from wells which reach the bed rock at a depth of 
about one hundred feet. 

An oil field has lately been discovered in Jasper 
County. 

Says Mr. Gifford: "It is now known to extend 
over this entire tract of land and doubtless much be- 
sides, probably covering an area of 40 miles or more 
north and south and 20 miles or more east and west." 

As these tenant-farm houses were, many of them, 
from twelve to fifteen miles from a shipping point, 
"when the present annual crop [1899] made its appear- 
ance, now embracing about 300,000 bushels of corn, 
200,000 bushels of oats, 150,000 bushels of onions, 
and 50,000 bushels of potatoes, and the certain pros- 
pect of more than doubling in the near future, a rail- 
road became a necessity." And so Mr. Gifford's 
former experience in railroad construction became . 
valuable. He very quietly planned the "Chicago and 
Wabash Valley" railroad, "eighteen miles of which are 
now completed and in operation." 

This road, commencing at present at Kersey, which 
is on the Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa road, about two 
miles and a half east of De Motte, runs in a south- 
easterly direction, crossing the Chicago and Indiana 
Coal road, as laid down on the map of Jasper County, 
at Zadoc, and then passes "the villiages of Laura, Gif- 



446 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

ford, Comer, Lewiston, and Pleasant Grove," having 
turned directly south, and will cross the "Monon" 
nearly south of Wheatfield and about five miles east 
from Rensselaer. 

"Right of way has practically been secured for the 
extension of the line, via Wolcott, as far south as 
Mont Moreney. Ties sufficient for ten miles or more 
are now made, and racked up along the line of road, 
which will doubtless be used this summer." 

"So much of this road as is now built is entirely 
out of debt, and it is not likely any indebtedness will 
be incurred in any future construction. Some grad- 
ing has been done north of the I. I. I., and most of 
the right of way secured to Orchard Grove, the inten- 
tion *being to carry the northern terminus to the city 
of Chicago^ and to push the southern terminus to the 
coal fields o£ Indiana." 

The future of this railroad is not certain and of 
course is not yet history ; but it is a grand idea for one 
man, although a millionaire, to* undertake "to make 
these marshes of Lake, Jasper, and White Counties 
available to the city of Chicago for garden purposes," 
and uniting the dredge boat and the locomotive, "the 
two being," says Mr. Gifford, "the most powerful 
agents for producing wealth discovered by modern 
man," "by their means to convert the worthless 
swamps covering a large area of Northern Indiana 
into fields the most valuable found within the State, 
or possibly the United States." 

And this work, it is evident, for Jasper County, 
Mr. Gifford is doing and has already done. 

A man who, on the Chicago Board of Trade, makes 
what they call a "corner" on wheat or oats or corn, 
may put many thousands of dollars into his own 



DRAINING MARSHES. 447 

pocket, but it has come out from the pockets of others. 
He has produced no wealth. He has produced noth- 
ing. He is not a producer. But the man who gets 
from the dried muck, where a few years ago the wa1£r 
was standing and the musk-rats built their homes, 
hundreds of thousands of bushels of vegetables and 
grain, is a true producer. In producing those supplies 
for the needs of man he produces wealth. 

The facts stated above show not only what one 
man has done for the improvement of Jasper County, 
but they show for the boys and young men of this 
generation, what a boy, taking a right course, starting 
out with no means at thirteen years of age, may ac- 
complish for himself and for his fellows. In draining 
"swamp" cr wet lands, in Illinois and Indiana, Mr. 
Gifford has provided homes for more than a thousand 
families, and has furnished employment for many 
thousand men, "no one of whom" he £ays, "ever 
worked one day without his pay," which is what some 
of the noted city millionaires cannot say ; and putting 
his own accumulations along with* the accumulations 
of the thousand families for whom he has provided 
homes, there would appear a large amount of wealth 
produced by brain and hand labor from what some 
would have called worthless tracts of land. 

Such a man as Benjamin J. Gifford will need no 
^marble monument to say that once he lived. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 



OUR NATIVE ANIMALS. 

As this is not a scientific work, and as space is quite 
limited, a short sketch only can be here given of the 
native, or wild animals, called in the old classifica- 
tion beasts, birds, fishes, insects, and reptiles. And 
as a good and a full view of the "fauna of Lake Coun- 
ty"was prepared by E. W. Dinwiddie of Plum Grove 
in 1884, and as there are but few varieties in any of 
the other counties not found in Lake, the salamander, 
as called in the South and by Webster, "2. A pouched 
rat (Geomys pinctis), found in Georgia and Florida/' 
seeming to be limited to Newton and Jasper, a kind 
of abstract of the paper carefully prepared by E. W. 
Dinwiddie and published in Lake County, 1884, pages 
150 to 158, will here ibe given as including nearly all 
of the animals native in Northwestern Indiana in the 
times of the first settlers. The first paragraph is 
quoted entire : "The peculiar position and varied na- 
ture of the soil of Lake County probably render it 
the natural home of more species of animal life than 
any other region of similar extent in the United 
States. Lake Michigan, the Kankakee and Calumet 



ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 449 

rivers and marshes, numerous small streams and 
lakes, swamps, prairie, groves, loam, clay, and sand 
hills, make a variety of soil and condition suited to 
the wants of hundreds of species of temperate zone 
animal life." Qmdruptds named are : By supposi- 
tion bison, elk, deer, beaver, opossums, musk-rats, 
mink, raccoon, squirrels, four species, gophers, two 
species, chipmunks, woodchucks, moles, skunks, rab- 
bits, badgers, hedgehogs, weasels, wolves, prairie 
wolves and large gray timber wolves, foxes, wildcats, 
and two varieties of mice, the field mouse and a 
white-throated timber mouse. 

Birds named are : As a visitor but not probably 
a native, the white swan ; also as visitors, gulls, but as 
native, among the swimmers, wild geese, brants, 
ducks, especially "the mallard, blue wing teal, wid- 
geon, wood-duck, spoonbill, and spike-tail", — and 
from different data the estimate is reached that in a 
single year in the county have been killed of these 
ducks 250,000, one man having himself shot in one 
season 2, 300, — loons and mud hens ; of waders, white 
and blue sand-hill cranes, other white and bluish 
cranes, the former sometimes having been seen in 
flocks of "two or three hundred feeding on the grass 
or stubble fields, " the latter. being solitary birds, ' 'or 
not more than two together, ' ' thunder-pumpers, jack- 
snipe, sand-pipe, plover, and rail, and of "the dry land 
birds," crow blackbirds, crows, red-wing blackbirds 
(a white blackbird has been seen), pigeons, meadow 
larks, mourning doves, robins, blue-jays, cat-birds, 
wrens., thrushes," two species of martins, three o! 
swallows, four varieties of wood-peckers, and several 
varieties of wild canaries," also humming birds, kill- 



450 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

dees, whip-poor-wills, "four species of owls, and two 
of hawks, grouse, called prairie chickens, quails, 
pheasants, and eagles. Of fishes some fourteen spe- 
cies have been found, including some excellent va- 
rieties for food, but their names are here omitted. 

Of insects very many are mentioned, but their 
names (except moths, butterflies, "many of them very 
brilliant and beautiful/'' flies, ten species, gnats, four 
species, musquitoes, four, and bees, three varieties, 
and wasps and hornets), must also be omitted. Of 
reptiles are named four varieties of lizards, three kinds 
of frogs, two of turtles or tortoises, toads, tree toads, 
and then snakes, rattle snakes, black snakes, and 
green snakes. And then of small animals many are 
referred to, as beetles, fifteen or twenty species, five 
species of spiders, crickets, katy-dids, locusts, and 
"unnumbered hosts of small bugs and insects and 
a great variety of worms." 

Animal life was certainly abundant. 

NATIVE PLANTS. 

In the same year of 1884, and published in the 
same work, Lake County, 1884, a paper was prepared 
by T. H. Ball on the "flora of Lake County." Some- 
thing of an abstract of that will also be given, as, with 
the exception of the heavy timber growth of La Porte, 
the vegetation in these counties will be found the 
same. Little will be found elsewhere in this region 
that is not found in Lake. 

Five varieties of growth were marked out. 1. 
The Calumet Region. Here grew white pine, red 
cedar, and several varieties of oak, and huckleberries, 
cranberries, and wintergreens ; also sassafras, and 
some twenty or thirty species of shrubs and bushes 



ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 451 

that cannot be here named. These made parts of the 
Calumet bottoms, in earlier years, about as impen- 
etrable as southern jungles, filled with so many tan- 
gled, running vines, that to pass through in straight 
lines was quite impracticable. But cities are growing 
there now. 

2. The clay land or woodlands. The original lim- 
its of this woodland were marked out, naming especi- 
ally forty-seven sections besides the principal groves 
of the county. The growth as named was oak, of sev- 
eral species, hickory, and bordering the prairies "a 
dense growth of hazel bushes ;" also "in some local- 
ities, crab-apples, plum trees, slippery elm, ash, sassa- 
fras, huckleberries, wild currants, goose berries, black 
berries, strawberries, hawthorne, white thorn, iron- 
wood, poplar or quaking aspen, and, as stragglers 
perhaps, red cedars, black walnut, and hard or rock 
maple." In these woodlands also grew many species 
of small flowering plants. "Among these are ane- 
mones, spring beauties, butter-cups, sanguinaria or 
blood-root, several species of blue violets, dog-tooth 
violets, Indian puccoon, lady-slippers, and very many 
species" whose names cannot here be given. Produc- 
ing fruit mandrakes and pawpaws. 

3. Plants of the prairies. Next to the true prairie 
grass are named, as characteristic plants, the polar 
plant (Silphium laciniatum), of which the botanist, 
Wood, says, "producing columns of smoke in the 
burning prairies by its copious resin," and from which 
the children of the prairies obtained pure, nice chew- 
ing gum, without paying any pennies, and the prairie 
dock (Silphium terebinthenacium), also resinous, and 
with broad leaves, from seven to twelve inches, and 
from one foot to two feet in length. Then there were, 



452 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

in bloom in June, July, and August, some fifty or more 
species of prairie plants, among them the beautiful 
meadow lily, and, growing in immense native beds, 
what the botanists call Phlox. On the 1 4th day of Oc- 
tober, 1884, the record reads, were gathered from a 
little portion of Lake Prairie Cemetery, where the 
plow had not been, "specimens of twenty-five cfifferent 
species of the original prairie plants," and their full 
number is estimated to be from two to three hundred. 
It need not be repeated that the prairies in summer 
were exceedingly beautiful. 

Some statements in regard to the grasses of the 
county are here quoted, grasses strictly so-called. 
"Probably from fifty to a hundred species were native 
here. Some varieties made poor, but many kinds 
made excellent hay. Some varieties grew about one 
foot high, some were two and three, some five and six 
feet in height. Some of the woodland grass was only 
a few inches in height. Some species had a small, al- 
most wiry blade, some a broad blade, some varieties 
had a reedlike stem with blades like the blades of 
maize. The stem of one variety was three-sided. 
Wild pea vines growng with some of the grass aided 
in making excellent winter provender." 

4. The wet land growth. First in beauty among 
these aquatic plants is named the water lily 
(Nymphaea odorata), of which Wood says : "One of 
the loveliest of flowers, possessing beauty, delicacy 
and fragrance in the highest degree." It would not 
seem that these could grow in greater abundance 
anywhere. "The yellow pond lily comes next." Then 
the cat-tail (Typha latifolia), the blue flag, Indian 
hemp, rushes, sedges, and yet many other aquatic 
plants. 



ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 453 

5. The Kankakee timber growth. On the islands 
proper, the soil generally sandy, grow "red oak, black 
oak, jack oak, hickory, sycamore, maple, pepperidge 
or gum tree, beech, and black walnut. Also some 
elm." 

Some of the region is swamp. 

"In this grow ash, elm, sycamore, birch, willow, 
maple, and cotton-wood, with a thick growth of un- 
derbrush or puckerbrush. Through this latter 
growth neither man nor dog can travel rapidly." 

To the native animals may be added, for La Porte 
County black bears and wild turkeys ; to the plants, 
white walnut and bass-wood. 

Notes. 1. Mr. H. Seymour of Hebron, who was 
born February 20, 1808, and who died January 18, 
1900, nearly ninety-two years of age, was probably 
the oldest of the early trappers and hunters, a rather 
peculiar class of men, who spent many years along the 
Kankakee marsh. He came, according to his recol- 
lection, to the vicinity of the old Indian Town, south 
of Hebron, in 1833. He was quite active, retaining 
well his faculties, when he was visited a year or two 
ago. He said that he thought the white cranes and 
the swan made nests in the marsh region in those 
early times, but he was not really certain. In regard 
to the sand-hill cranes, the wild geese, the ducks, 
herons, and the smaller water fowls of the region, 
there was, he was sure, no doubt in regard to their 
nests. 

The wild geese, the brants, most of the different 
species of ducks, and largely the sand-hill cranes, have 
gone to places more remote from the foot of man 
and the noise of steam, to make their nests and rear 
their young; but in this grand marsh region the nest- 



454 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

ing places still remain of the blue heron, of the bittern, 
of the mud-hen, of various species of snipe, of rail, 
and of plover. On Red Oak Island are still the nest- 
ing places of owls, the large horned owls, and other 
varieties. 

The wild geese many years ago made nests upon 
sections 4 and 5, and 18, in township 32, range 7 west, 
the name Goose Pond having been given by the early 
settlers to a portion of water, at the beginning of the 
present Brown Ditch, on section 4, where the mother 
geese and their little ones used to swim and get food. 
On section 18 they had for their swimming place a 
bayou which the trappers call Hog Marsh. 

On section 7, in this same township and range, 
is a small island where many nests are still made by 
a marsh water fowl which the hunters call "squaks." 

The year 1882 was noted for a great number of 
wild geese visitors, no longer natives here. 

A certain knoll southward from Plum Grove was 
very attractive that spring to the Kankakee visitors. 
"From! four o'clock in the morning until about nine 
o'clock different flocks would arrive at this grassy 
knoll until some five acres would be literally covered 
with these beautiful water fowls, apparently as thickly 
crowded as they well could stand." 

Of course, unlike some human creatures, they 
were too polite to crowd. One man has the credit of 
shooting fifty-nine here in one day. 

On "Little Eagle," a small marsh island, now 
owned by Hon. Jerome; Dinwiddie, there was, many 
years ago, an eagle's nest, built upon a large elm 
tree. This island is on section 6, township 32, range 
7 west, of second principal meridian, in Lake County. 
The same pair of eagles, it is believed, made a nest or 



ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 455 

repaired one for some twenty years. They left the 
island about 1880. 

Colton in his great and instructive work, "Atlas 
of the World," 1856, in describing 1 Indiana as then it 
was — or was supposed to be — says: "Near Lake 
Michigan the country has extensive sand hills which 
are covered only with stunted and shrivelled pines 
and burr oaks." Of cedar trees, "of the very fruitful 
huckleberry bushes and sand-hill cherries that grew 
on those bluffs, his work makes no mention. 

Whatever may have been the growth in 1856, the 
credit of this region requires the showing that shriv- 
elled pines were not the original growth. 

Solon Robinson says, in his Manuscript Lecture 
of 1847, now in the possession of Walter L. Allman 
of Crown Point, that the sand ridges along Lake 
Michigan were "originally covered with a val- 
uable growth of pine and cedar, which has 
been all stript off to build up Chicago." And 
he adds, in regard to Lake County: "In the 
northeast the sand hills are very abrupt and have yet 
some good pine timber, although very difficult to 
obtain." And General Packard in his history of La 
Porte County says : "Formerly the region bordering 
the lake was well covered with beautiful white pine; 
but this valuable tree has almost wholly disappeared, 
being cut off for lumber."* 

*I am glad that I was on those great piles of sand so often 
and saw with my own eyes the great pine trees, as early as 
1837, before the white settlers had made much impression on 
the vegetation or the sand hills. Large and delicious were the 
high bush huckleberries that grew on these high sand hills, 
and very abundant were the fragrant wintergreen berries. Mr. 
L. W. Thumpson. now living in Hammon'd, born July 14, 1814, 
remembers well the pines and the wintergreens, and he thinks 
the pines in 1837 were twenty inches in diameter as thelogs 
were sawed at the City West sawmill. T. H. B. 



456 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

The largest and probably the only native pine 
grove in Lake County is quite peculiarly situated. It 
is nine miles south of Lake Michigan and six miles 
south of the Little Calumet, almost exactly south of 
the mouth of Deep River, and two miles south of 
Turkey Creek. It is on the southeast quarter of the 
northwest quarter of section 14, township 35, range 
8 west, on land now owned by George Hayward, who 
says that is covers an area of about ten acres. It is 
on low and, originally, quite wet ground, so wet that 
years ago it could well have been called a pine 
swamp. The trees are quite close together, there must 
be several hundred of them, and the larger ones seem 
to be of about the same size, as though they had all 
been growing not more than sixty or severity years. 
Although, according to Gray's Manual of Botany, of 
the white pine species, there are no majestic trees 
among them, like those tall, wood monarchs that used 
to be along the southern sand hills of Lake Michigan 
in 1837, between Michigan City and the Illinois State 
line, with which some yet living were then so familiar ; 
and another peculiarity of this pine grove is, that the 
soil is not sand, but peat bogs rather, where these 
trees grow. They are several miles away from any 
other native pines that have not been transplanted, 
and to account for their growth where they are and 
as they are, would surely puzzle an ordinary botanist. 

As the large and valuable pine trees of Lake and 
Porter counties were soon cut down, perhaps on that 
account some writers have supposed that no such trees 
grew along our lake shore borders. 

A number of small pine groves may now be found, 
of that Lake Michigan pine, in the rich prairie region 
north of the Kankakee River, the trees having beei 



ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 457 

taken when small, from their native sand hills many 
years ago. The largest and finest grove of pine na- 
tive in Europe, to he found now in Lake County, is 
on what has been known as the Turner Schofield farm, 
about five miles south of Crown Point. It covers about 
four acres of ground. The trees are Austrian pine 
and Scotch pine with some larch. Here is a noted 
crow roost. A little west of Schererville is a large 
pine grove of native pine of about a thousand trees, 
trees that many years ago were taken from their orig- 
inal locality and set out on that grand sand ridge. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 

Extracts and statements, quoted and abridged, 
from an address, by Solon Robinson, delivered before 
the Lake County Temperance Socety in the log 
court house in 1847. Historical. Early settlers. 1. 
The Bennett family opened a tavern on the beach of 
Lake Michigan "near the mouth of the old Calumie," 
the date supposed to be 1832. 2. The Berry family 
opened a tavern on the beach in the spring of 1834. 
3. Four or five families settled as squatters in the fall 
of 1834: "Thomas Childers and myself in October. 
He a day or two before me. His claim southeast 
quarter section 17, mine northwest quarter section 8." 
November 1, "Henry Wells and Luman A- Fowler 
came along on foot." Their horses had been left on 
Twenty Mile Prairie. "Cedar Lake was then the cen- 
ter of attraction for land lookers, and they passed on 
down to that lake without thinking to inquire who 
kept tavern there." They found lodging in a fallen 
tree top still covered with leaves, and had for supper 
"the leg of a roasted 'coon." They found there David 
Hornor, his son Thomas, and a relative named Brown, 
who were looking for claims and .who settled in 1835. 
Wells and Fowler returned next day to the Robinson 
camp, slept that night on "the softest kind of a whte- 
oak puncheon," bought claims and "two log cabin 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 459 

bodies built by one Huntley," on the south half of 
section 8, paying- for these claims $50. Henry Wells 
went back to Michigan for his family. Luman A. 
Fowler staid through the winter. ''During the tirst 
winter we had many claim makers but few settlers." 

4. "The first family that came after Childers and 
myself was that of Robert Wilkinson" of Deep River. 
"He settled about the last of November, 1834." 

5. The next family, that of Lyman Wells, with 
whom came John Driscoll, settled in January, 1835, 
on section 25, township 33, range 9. April 4, 1835, 
"there was a most terrible snowstorm, the weather 
previous having been mild as summer." 

Until March, 1836, the nearest postoflke was 
Michigan City. Solon Robinson then appointed post- 
master. His office was named Lake Court House, 
written usually Lake C. H. Receipts for quarter end- 
ing in June, 1837, $26.92; September 30, $43.50. For 
the next two quarters $57.33, and $57.39. This last 
the largest amount while he was postmaster. Next 
postoffice west was Joliet. 

"In the spring of 1836 we were attached to Porter 
County the commissioners of which divided this coun- 
ty into three townships." The county was organized 
in 1837. Log court house built in 1837. "During the 
summer of 1837 we na< ^ preaching several times at 
our house and in the present court room." 

"The Baptist people at Cedar Lake also had fre- 
quent meetings this year, and I think had preaching 
at Judge Ball's who settled there this year." 

"The summer of 1838 was one of severe drought 
and great sickness." 

Muskrats went to houses to seek water. "One of 
them came into my house and never so much as asked 



460 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

for a drink of whisky," but went direct for the water 
bucket. 

In 1839 the county seat was located at Liverpool. 
The seat of justice had been fixed by the legislature 
temporarily at Lake Court House. 

In March, 1839, the land sales opened at La Porte. 

In June, 1840, county seat re-located. Contest 
mainly between West Point at Cedar Lake, and Lake 
C. H. 

"The county seat was then permanently located 
where it now is in June, 1840." 

"There are four principal streets runing north 
and south." "There is a very large common or public 
square in the center that never can be built upon, and 
an acre of ground devoted exclusively for the court 
house and public offices."* 

"November 19, 1840, the first lots were sold at 
auction * * * and from this time the town of 
Crown Point dates its existence." 

"The town is laid out upon sixty acres, twenty 
acres of Judge Clark's and forty of mine." 

A house was soon built in the new Crown Point. 
"I built it for Elder Norman Warriner in the spring of 
1 841, and he was the first minister of the gospel set- 
tled here, and I believe in the county." 

"In June, 1841, three individuals made the first 
effort to form a temperance society here. Your 
records will show that it was carried into effect, and 
the celebration of the Fourth of July with cold water 
and a picnic dinner was the happiest one to some 



*The large court house now in the center of that "public 
square" shows how little founders of towns can control the 
future of their towns. T.H.B., 1900. 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 461 

three hundred men, women, and children, that I ever 
saw." 

"In the spring of 1842 Mr. Mills built his large 
tavern house in Crown Point, and opened a store in 
one end of it and a very bad whisky shop in the other. 
I cannot say that this improvement has ever improved 
the morals of the place. " In 1842 a frame school 
house, the first, at Crown Point, was built. In 1843 
Elder Warriner went to Illinois. M. Allman came to 
Crown Point. This year two church buildings were 
erected, the M. E. church at West Creek, the German 
Catholic on Western Prairie, the latter having a bell. 

These extracts give some of the valuable historic 
facts contained in that quite lengthy address. One, 
at least, of those who heard it delivered is living yet, 
and he has not forgotten the circumstances of its 
delivery, the interest with which many listened to it 
then, and the value which, we were then told, would, in 
after years, be attached to such records. 

Fifty-three years since then have passed, and little 
could that then white-haired man have thought that 
one of his young auditors would, after many years, 
look over with interest that preserved manuscript, 
and make a faithful effort to transmit the facts re- 
corded, as well as a just representation of the one who 
recorded them, into the coming years of the twentieth 
century. And not the records of the early years of 
Lake County alone, but that with them would be com- 
bined by his then youthful friend, now gray-haired and 
well advanced in life, what he could find of seven other 
counties also ; to go down, perhaps, to another gener- 
ation. What use may be made of what is left by any one 
in manuscript or on printed page no one can tell ; and 
so one lesson plainly is that we should not write, 



462 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

however carelessly or hastily, what might harm or do 
injustice to another. 

See in regard to Solon Robinson a notice elsewhere 
in this chapter. 

EARLY CELEBRATIONS. 

A Fourth of July celebration was held in the 
bounds of Starke before the county was organized, 
in either 1848 or 1849, the locality being near the 
present Toto. The company could not have been very 
large. They had a warm dinner. The cabin where 
they met seems to have had two rooms, they had 
tables from which to eat, and after dinner they danced. 
She who, as a young girl remembers the circum- 
stances, was born in 1840, was then living in Pulaski 
County came into the new county of which her 
father became a resident, in 1851, and is now a 
resident in the town of Knox. 

A celebration in Jasper County, at Rensselaer, is 
thus narrated by Judge Thompson : "In 1843 we na d 
a Fourth of July celebration, with a two-story quilt- 
ing, the reading of the declaration, and a sermon 
under an old oak standing in what is now Washing- 
ton street." The first real celebration at Crown Point, 
which was in 1841, was referred to in Solon Robin- 
son's historical address. One at La Porte in 1837 
has been also placed in these records. 

In the Standard, the Baptist paper published at 
Chicago, date July 7, 1900, an account is given of a 
celebration in Lake County, under the heading, "The 
Fourth of July in the West in 1848," by "M. J. C." 
It occupies nearly an entire page of that large and 
widely circulated paper. It ,is too lengthy to be re- 
produced here, but some of those who* have read it, 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 463 

not knowing where that celebration was held, will be 
readers, it is hoped, of this book also, and will recog- 
nize the quotations inserted here. 

This was a celebration by a New England family, 
a family usually numbering from ten to twelve in- 
mates, and for this occasion the Standard story says, 
''some neighboring families several miles distant had 
been invited, making about thirty persons in all." 
Reluctantly omitting the many preceding sentences, 
the following is quoted : "The resources for prepar- 
ing a feast in that western home were wonderful. Two 
large old-fashioned fireplaces could roast and boil, and 
a 'rotary' stove, brought from Buffalo when moving 
West, had a capacious tin oven of three pieces, which 
could 'be put on top, and seven or eight loaves of 
bread, or a cake two feet across, could be beautifully 
baked, the whole top of the stove turning with a crank 
to v bring any part over the fire." 

The various sets of dishes are then described, the 
light blue dinner plates, and the dark blue ones, and 
the "light brown of beautiful design," and "the big 
platters and lovely tureens, and the dessert plates of 
light blue with scalloped edges, and the white china 
with gold bands," — some of these sets "seldom used, 
and all brought from the East a dozen years before." 
All mention of the rich dinner and the exercises 
of the day must be omitted, and one other statement 
only can be added, that a good display of fireworks 
from Chicago closed up this memorable day. 

The mention of the fireworks suggests this record, 
that just ten years before this time, July 4, 1838, the 
oldest brother of "M. J. C." had celebrated his 
"fourth" with a display of fireworks not obtained in 
Chicago, but brought from the Eastern home, fur- 



464 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

nished by a good uncle in New York city when 
Roman candles were a new invention ; and that with 
his fireworks of various kinds he caused a suspension, 
for a time, of a Fourth of July dance near by his home ; 
and that, probably, so he thinks, he presented the first 
display of fireworks ever exhibited in Lake County. 
Those fireworks his young sister did not see, for it was 
the year before her bright presence gladdened that 
Indiana home, that his private celebration was held. 

These five early celebrations, each different from 
all the others, may serve as illustrations of many 
others in those earlier years. 

AN INCIDENT. 

The following account is taken, with very little 
change in the wording, from a memorandum found in 
an old record book, the handwriting of which gives 
assurance of its perfect accurracy, but whether the 
incident occurred at her own home near Wheeler, or 
whether, which is more probable, at the home of her 
friend who makes the record and who was much in- 
terested in bee management, is not certain. This is 
the record: In 1844 Almira Harris was stung on 
the temple in the morning by a bee returning to the 
hive. Her whole system was immediately affected 
and in a few minutes the flesh was swelled even to her 
toes, and the skin presented a shining, red appearance 
similar to the hives or mad-itch, and her face was so 
swelled that she could scarcely see. She was in great 
pain, particularly in the stomach, and in a few minutes 
was unable to sit up, and probably would in a short 
time have died without a remedy, an antidote to the 
poison. Several supposed remedies were used in the 
hurry and alarm of the family, but without any benefit 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 465 

and having heard that the oil of cinnamon was good 
for snake bite, some one proposed to try that now. 
About fifteen minutes had already passed. From 
appearances she could not have lived but a short time, 
as spasms were coming on. Three drops of this oil 
on sugar were given, and the good effect was immedi- 
ate. The relief from pain was so sudden that it was 
with difficulty she was kept from fainting. The swell- 
ing immediately began to subside but it was two or 
three days before she entirely recovered. 

A RISKY SHOT. 

That along the Kankakee River, near the wet 
lands, and on the timbered islands or sand ridges, 
sportsmen and trappers have for many years had tem- 
porary homes, has been more than once mentioned. 
Some records in regard to the wild fowls here and the 
fur bearing animals will be found in other connections. 

A few miles south of Crown Point, when the 
prairie was open and wild, there were some small 
marshes where a few hundred wild geese would often 
stop for a few hours' rest or for forage. It was 
autumn. Two young men in a wagon drawn by two 
horses, one reputed lazy but quick enough in his 
actions when startled, were returning homeward 
across this then open prairie. A woman was also in 
the wagon. As they approached one of these small 
marshes they saw a few hundred geese sitting or prob- 
ably standing on the newly formed ice. They had with 
them one double-barrel gun, loaded for geese. The 
ground near this marsh was rendered quite uneven by 
small bogs or bunches of earth and grass, formed, 
no one knows how, and now frozen quite hard. But 
the temptation was great. One of the young men 



466 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

took up the gun. The other drove the team along 
the jolting edge of the marsh. At length, coming 
within about ninety feet of the wondering geese, the 
young man with the gun shouted, the geese arose in 
one black mass, both 'barrels of the gun were dis- 
charged, that lazy horse and the other started on a 
keen jump, the woman fell from her seat into the 
wagon, the young man with the gun instantly fell to 
the bottom of the wagon box, and the other wound 
the lines tightly around his hands, braced himself 
against the front of the box, and as the wagon bound- 
ed from bog to bog, gave his attention to the horses. 
He succeeded after a time in checking their fearful 
speed. The horses were brought to a halt. Then 
they turned back to look after the results. They found 
five large, fat wild geese fallen to the ice as the result 
of that risky shot, a shot which might have caused 
the loss of limb or life, had not the driver succeeded 
in arresting the progress of those frightened, plung- 
ing horses. 

But a hunter or a sportsman will risk much rather 
than lose the chance of a good shot. 

A RECORD. 

A sheriff of Pulaski County some thirty-five years 
ago was Alonzo Starr, in 1843 having come from 
Genesee county, New York, and settling or a farm in 
Lake County, when in October, 1852, he was married 
to Miss Ruby Wallace of South East Grove, and after 
some time removed to Francesville and in 1865 to 
Winamac and was elected sheriff, which office he held 
for two terms. He was considered one of the best in- 
formed Free Masons, "when it came to the workings 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 467 

of that order in Northern Indiana." He died in 1898 
seventy-six years of age. 

In 1872 ten families owned about one-sixth of the 
area of Lake County; and six families, so near as an 
estimate could be made, owned one-tenth, in value, of 
the real estate of the county. At that time A. N. 
Hart of Dyer held the largest number of acres, about 
15,000, which lands were supposed then to be worth a 
half million of dollars. About 1892 a thousand acres 
of that land was sold for a full hundred dollars an 
acre. At that time Dorsey & Cline, non-residents, 
held as much as 10,000 acres, and G. W. Cass, also a 
non-resident, held of Kankakee marsh land nearly 
10,000 acres. Since then, great changes have taken 
place through all the Kankakee region and the Calu- 
met region. The Lake Agricultural Company, com- 
posed of heirs of General G. W. Cass, a leading mem- 
ber of the company. William R. Shelby of Michigan, 
still own a large portion of the Cass land. 

Of individual owners now John Brown, President 
of the First National Bank of Crown Point, has 5,300 
acres of this marsh land, and W. M. White, a non- 
resident, has the second larg-est amount, holding 
about 1,300 acres. In the Calumet region on Lake 
Michigan, the Chicago Stock Yard Company hold 
about 4,400 acres. A few quite large farms remain 
in the central parts of the county; but several large 
tracts of land, since 1872, have gone into the hands of 
many owners. 






The settlements in La Porte County, amid the 
many beautiful lakes, along the small, rich prairies, 
and in the dense forest growth of its tracts of choice 



468 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

timber, made rapid progress. Says General Packard, 
so generally accurate and reliable in his statements; 
"In the spring of 1834 the county exhibited marked 
progress and prosperity. Roads had been laid out 
in all parts of the county, schools were opened, many 
broad acres were under cultivation, courts of justice 
were established, numerous houses were erected in La 
Porte and Michigan City, modest farm houses dotted 
the prairies in every direction, and the tide of immi- 
gration was rolling in unchecked. The comforts of 
life were fast being added to the mere necessaries; 
and contentment and happiness took up their abode in 
the dwelling of nearly every settler." 

The record is that settlers came into La Porte 
County rapidly in 1834 and 1835; but it should be 
borne in mind, when reading General Packard's beau- 
tiful description of prospering settlers, that settle- 
ments in Porter and Jasper, in Lake and Pulaski and 
White, were only beginning or scarcely even begin- 
ning in 1834, and that those pioneers had to pass 
through many years of privations and hardships be- 
fore it could be said of them that "contentment and 
happiness had taken up their abode in the dwelling of 
nearly every settler," that is, contentment in the sense 
of having their main wants supplied. 

Settlements on the larger prairies, and certainly in 
Lake County, were not made to any extent by the 
pioneers. 

And the same was the fact in Jasper County. Judge 
Thompson says, that the prairies in the early days 
were considered wholly unfit for human occupancy. 
"The pioneers uniformly settled in or near the groves 
and along the streams." In 1856, he says, "the dry- 
est season ever known," the people first learned the 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 469 

value of the prairie lands, even the mucky prairies, 
and after that year the population and wealth of the 
county rapidly increased. 

In that same year of 1856 a settlement was made 
near the center of Lake Prairie in Lake County by 
families from New Hampshire bearing the old and 
honored names of Little, Ames, Gerrish, Peach, Morey 
and Plumer, some of them descendants of the noted 
martyr, John Rogers of Smithfield. Their pastor, 
Rev. H. Wason, settled in 1857. A school house was 
built, school and church life commenced, and houses 
and fences and orchards soon changed the appearance 
of the late open prairie. In 1870 no range for stock 
was left. Robinson Prairie, northeast from Crown 
Point, was nearly all enclosed in 1871, and the broad 
sweep of that prairie, nine miles across, south and 
southeast from Crown Point, was for the most part 
enclosed by the end of the year 1872. As late as 1866 
a party of young people endeavoring to reach Crown 
Point from Plum Grove, spent a good part of one 
night in vain attempts to find their way where there 
were no fences, no houses, no works of men to guide 
them. 

The smaller prairies of Porter County, Horse 
Prairie and Morgan Prairie, and Door Prairie, Roll- 
ing, and Stillwell of La Porte, were enclosed earlier. 

Settlement and rapid growth, as has been fully 
seen, commenced in the north part of La Porte County 
about 1830; but the extreme south part made very 
little advance until the railroad period opened. That 
which is now called Dewey township was for some 
time a part of Starke County, and afterward was a 
part of Cass township, and was set off as an independ- 
ent township and named in June, i860. Much of this 



470 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

township and the south part of Hanna, the part in 
township 33, were in the Kankakee Marsh Region, and 
so gave little inducement for settlers until railroads 
and ditches opened up this now inviting region. Set- 
tlement commenced in Dewey in 1854 and the set- 
tlers were mostly Germans. Early family names are : 
Schimmel, Schauer, Besler, and Lougu. Names of 
later settlers are, Rudolph, Rosenbaum, Kruger, and 
Wagner. Much of the land is held by non-residents, 
as has been the case to quite an extent through all of 
this valuable region. 

The railroads and the ditch es, the advance forces 
in leading on to settlement and cultivation, have made 
.a vast change in the Kankakee Valley since 1850. 

AN OBJECT LESSON. 

As late as 1845 members of the Ball family on the 
west side of their Red Cedar Lake set up a row of 
poles, with white flags on the top of each, through the 
center of Lake Prairie from north to south, so as to 
enable them to keep near the same line in crossing 
over that unbroken prairie amid its immense flower 
beds and its thousands of tall polar plants. It was 
nine miles across from north to south, and from east 
to west across the more central part the prairie ridge 
was high so that one could not see more than four 
miles off when standing on the general level of the 
prairie at the north. While this prairie was thus open 
and was burned over every fall by the fires that came 
up from the Kankakee Marsh, there was on one win- 
ter's morning, to the children and other people who 
observed it, a strange and an interesting sight. Along 
the marsh shore line, at the south, on sections 3 and 4 
and 5 of township 32, range 9, were groves, or 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 471 

stretches of woodland, one especially was at that time 
called the Belshaw Grove. Across the center of that 
prairie, as already implied, the horizon line seemed to 
touch the prairie. In the summer it was a line of 
green grass, miles away; in the winter it was a line 
of brown, burnt prairie surface, or a line of snow. On 
this special morning E. J. Farwell, riding over from 
his home near the Illinois line, announced to the mem- 
bers of the Ball family, living on the northwest quart- 
er of section 2J, that groves were in sight, woodlands, 
all across the middle of their prairie. They looked 
and to their great surprise, beheld the Belshaw Grove, 
which some of them had learned well to know, and 
woodland further west, standing in bold outline across 
that open prairie line, as though some wondrous 
power had, the night before, raised them up bodily and 
set them down in the middle of what was the day be- 
fore open prairie. They looked and wondered. The 
scene was grand. The prairie was smoothly covered 
with a newly fallen snow ; the sun came up bright and 
warm for the time of year ; and then and there those 
favored children had their grandest object lesson on 
the refraction of light. Before noon of that day those 
groves disappeared and nothing could be there seen 
on which the sun was shining but the spotless snow. 
But, before the sunset of that day came, again those 
groves appeard in sight and remained until the prairie 
was covered with the dusk of the evening. Those 
children never saw those groves in the middle of that 
prairie again, and they knew, when then they saw 
them that they were in reality out of sight. 

Note — Illustrating the statement that the larger 
prairies were not settled by the early pioneers, is the 
following personal reminiscence: 



472 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

It was not until 1845, having had a home on the 
edge of Lake Prairie for more than seven years, and 
having become quite well acquainted with the central 
parts of Lake County, that I first crossed the nine 
miles of open prairie between my home and the south- 
ern Marsh border, or Shore Line, I crossed it then on 
horseback, in the summer time, on one delightful after- 
noon, with a fair-haired, lovely girl, two years young- 
er than myself, who was entering even then, unknown 
to any, upon the last year of her short life. She knew 
the way and I did not. Our horses went over beau- 
tiful flower beds that day. We went up to the crests 
of the long slopes and down into the valleys of that 
gently rolling prairie — beautiful it has always been 
called — miles away from houses or fences or human 
beings, with the loveliness of nature around, and over 
us the protection of God. 

SOLON ROBINSON. 

Note. — Of the first settler, at what is now Crown 
Point, some special statements may justly be made. 
There are not many living now who know much 
about him, not any, except a few of his own family 
who knew him very well. He has a daughter now 
living in Crown Point, Mrs. Straight, and a daughter 
in Chcago, Dr. L. G. Bedell, one of the noted physi- 
cians of that great city, some grandchildren and great 
grandchildren living, but few of these were much ac- 
quainted with him. Having known him better than 
most of those now living, and having been intimate 
with some who did know him well, I have very certain 
knowledge as to the statements here made. 

T. H. B. 

Born October 21, 1803, in Connecticut, spending 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 473 

some years in Jennings County, Indiana, he came 
with a young family into Lake County in October, 
1834. His wife was a superior woman, born near 
Philadelphia. He was active in forming the Squatters' 
Union, was their first Recorder of Claims, was Clerk 
of the Circuit Court of Lake County, was general man- 
ager of the Board of Commissioners, (there was then 
no Auditor), and controlled so largely the affairs of the 
early settlers that he acquired the title of "Squatter 
King of Lake." He was the first postmaster and con- 
tinued in office till 1843, and in company with his 
brother sold goods to the Indians and to the first set- 
tlers. "He was affable, familiar, plain, hospitable, 
kind, and accommodating," enjoying the wielding of 
influence, fond of gaining celebrity. He became quite 
a writer, an author, two stories, "The Will," and "The 
Last of the Buffalos," being among his earliest publi- 
cations, before he left Lake County. After having a 
home in Crown Point for about thirteen years he went 
to New York and was for some time connected with 
the New York Tribune. He there wrote ' 'Hot Corn, " 
"Green Mountain Girls," and "Me-Won-I-Toc, A 
Tale of Frontier Life," the scene of which, like that 
of "The Will," was laid in Lake County and touched 
the Lake of the Red Cedars. 

Besides these few facts of a long and varied Hie, 
the following statements are here added; added be- 
cause by some who did not know him, who never 
shared the hospitality of his home, who never met 
with him in temperance work or in literary societies or 
in building up the life of a young community, his real 
character has been misapprehended and inaccurate 
statements concerning him have been publicly made. 

He was not a professed Christian man, not a 



474 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

church member, not what is called a religious man; 
but he had been too shrewd an observer of men and 
things, long before he settled in Lake County, not to 
know and to acknowledge how useful and needful in 
social and civil life, were the restraints and blessed in- 
fluence of Christianity. And one of almost his first 
acts in securing inhabitants for the county seat was 
obtaining the residence in it of Rev. Norman Warriner 
from Red Cedar Lake, providing for him and his 
family a home very near to his own home and pro- 
viding ways to help in his support. Thus, in the very 
beginning of the life of Crown Point as a county seat 
a resident minister was secured through the efforts 
of Solon Robinson. As early as 1837 his own house 
and the log building which he had erected for a court 
house were opened for preaching. Acting in concert 
with Judge Hervey Ball he was instrumental in the 
purchase of a library for the village from a colporteur 
of the American Tract Society. A Sunday school, 
which his children from its beginning attended, was 
started in the log court house about 1840 through the 
efforts of Rev. N. Warriner and the Baptists of Prairie 
West and of the Lake and of Rev. J. C. Brown and a 
few Presbyterian women, in which school, after the 
arrival of Rev. M. Allman in 1843 the Methodists also 
united. A temperance society was also organized in 
the court house by Rev. N. Warriner, Solon Robinson, 
and Judge Ball, in which those of all denominations 
and creeds represented in the community united. An 
Evangelical Library Association was formed by Rev. 
W. Townley, Rev. M. Allman, "S. Robinson, H. Ball, 
and a few others." 

A strong temperance man, intelligent, talented, a 
fluent speaker and an easy writer, whatever eccentri- 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 475 

cities of character he may have possessed, and what- 
ever skeptical doubts in regard to Christianity he may 
have entertained, the founder of Crown Point, Lake 
county's "Squatter King," did not undertake from even 
the very first to build up a town on infidel teachings. 
He was far from undertaking to do that. Whatever 
unbelief or skepticism there may be in Crown Point it 
is not to be traced back to any teachings given by 
Solon Robinson. 

Like his hand-writing, which was clear and dis- 
tinct, much of which written in 1836 with good black 
ink is now in my possession, so his name is indellibly 
written, plainly, distinctly, in the history of Crown 
Point and of Northwestern Indiana ; and as the "orig- 
inal projector of a National Agricultural Society," so 
far as I may be able, having known him quite well 
from 1837 to 1847, I wish to see that there is done to 
his reputation no injustice. In closing up his last ad- 
dress to the members of the Lake County Temperance 
Society in 1847, ne said: "And as for myself I will 
ask no prouder monument to my fame than to be as- 
sured that the members of this society will stand as 
mourners around my grave and, pointing to the life- 
less form beneath the falling sods, shall truly say, 
There lies a' brother who in this life had an ardent de- 
sire to promote the happiness of his fellow creatures.' " 
In one of his many published articles he had taught : 
"Happiness and not wealth should be the aim of all, 
though no man should allow himself to be happy with- 
out he is doing some good in the world — promoting 
the happiness of his fellow creatures as well as of 
himself." 

Spending many years in NewYork city, acquiring 
there quite a reputation as a writer, he at last made a 
home near Jacksonville, Florida, where he died in 
1880, at the advanced age of JJ years. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



COURT HOUSES. 

NEWTON COUNTY. 

Newton County has no court house exhibited here 
because its modern building has not yet been con- 
structed, the old frame building of i860 being still in 
use; but it has certainly the largest and best shaded 
public square in Northwestern Indiana. Its dimen- 
sions are 300 feet by 400 feet, and the native, forest 
trees still shade it. If the county seat should be re- 
moved this grand square could not be moved with it. 
When the question of removal is settled no doubt a 
good building will be erected. 

JASPER COUNTY. 




Jasper County 
has had quite a 
number of coun- 
ty buildings. A 
small log build- 
ing had been pro- 
vided for the ses- 
sion of the Cir- 
cuit Court in 
April, 1840. 
About 1845 a 
frame building 
was erected for 
the purpose of 
holding courts, 



COURT HOUSES. 



477 



and in 1853 a brick court house was built at a 
cost of twelve thousand dollars. This was destroyed 
by fire in November, 1864, and another court house 
was erected.. The first jail was built of logs in 1847 
by George W. Spitler, costing forty-nine town lots. 
This was burned in 1856, and for the next twenty 
years and more Jasper had no jail. 

The contract for the present court house was 
formed in July, 1896, and work soon commenced. The 
building was completed in 1898. It is constructed of 
Bedford stone, with what is called rough finish. Like 
all our modern stone structures it is a solid looking 
building and presents an imposing appearance. Cost 
$165,000.00. 

It stands within a public square, which seems to be 
the prevailing style. 

Auditor of Jasper County, Henry B. Murray. 

WHITE COUNTY. 




In Monticello 
selected for a 
county seat and 
named in Sep- 
tember, 1834, 
town lots were 
laid off by John 
Ban, Senior, 
County Agent, 
and a sale was 
ordered for No- 
vember 7, 1834. 
A small, two 
Story, frame 



478 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



court house was soon built, which was ready for 
use in 1836. Cost, about five hundred dollars. A log 
jail was built. In 1850 a second court house was 
built, costing- nine thousand dollars, and a new jail. 

In the history of Pulaski and White it is said that 
one jail was "built in 1854, and another in 1864, cost- 
ing seven thousand and seven hundred dollars." An- 
other authority says that in 1875 a third jail building 
was erected, built of stone, and that this with the 
sheriff's residence attached, built of brick, cost twelve 
thousand dollars. That nearly eight thousand dollars 
should be laid out for a jail in 1864 and twelve thou- 
sand in 1875 does not look quite probable. In 1894 
was built the present massive and imposing court 
house, of gray stone, costing eighty-five thousand 
dollars. 

M. J. Holtzman, Auditor. 

PULASKI COUNTY. 




The first court 
house was a frame 
building erected at 
Winamac about 
1841. One of brick 
was afterwards 
built, and both 
court house and jail 
in 1876 were con- 
sidered substantial structures. The present court 
house is a fine looking building of light-colored stone 
erected in 1895, costing about fifty thousand dollars. 
The square in which it stands is graded up very neatly. 
Auditor, James N. Hayworth. 



COURT HOUSES. 



479 



STARKE COUNTY. 




The court 
house at 
Knox, while 
not so large 
nor so costly 
as some of 
the others, is 
quite as fine 
in appear- 
ance, and 
presents to a 
visitor an in- 
viting and 



arrangement 

in all of its inside structure. The room for 
the farmers' families has a cosy and pleasant appear- 
ance ; the court room is peculiarly arranged so that the 
lawyers and their clients may pass in to> the inner por- 
tion of the room between the seat for the judge and the 
wall. This appears to be a great convenience, as the 
entrance is near the seat for the judge. 

The inside of the dome has interesting designs 
painted or frescoed upon the wall. On the north, 
America is represented by an Indian ; on the south is 
the figure of Justice ; on the west a figure representing 
Glory; and on the east is presented Eternity. America 
should ever be the home for justice; and being 
just Americans will have their share of all true nation- 
al glory ; but well is it in temples of justice for litigants 
and lawyers and witnesses and judges to remember, 



480 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



in the East there is that which overshadows all time. 

The building is near the north part of the town on 
good ground for a public building, so that it is sightly, 
and is a good stone structure, completed in 1898, and 
costing $125,000. 

The material is called Blue Amherst stone, fur- 
nished by the Malone Stone Company of Cleveland, 
Ohio. 

Present auditor of Starke County Aug. H. Knos- 



man. 



LAKE COUNTY. 



Near the center 
of Lake County, by 
the enterprise of two 
brothers, S ol o n 
Robinson and Milo 
Robinson, there was 
erected in 1837 a 
log building de- 
signed for a court 
house, although no 
county seat for Lake 
had then been lo- 
cated. Courts were 
held in this building, 
and when, in 1840, this central locality was finally se- 
lected for the most northwestern county seat in Indi- 
ana, the log building was adopted as the court house, 
and has been known in all these years in the annals 
and traditions of Lake County as the "Old Log Court 
House." In May of 1838 it had been made the tem- 
porary court house of the county by the act of the 




COURT HOUSES. 481 



county commissioners in accordance with an act of the 
State Legislature. 

In 1838 the lower room was fitted up "for a prison'' 
at a cost of sixty-four dollars. 

The cost of the entire building may have been five 
hundred dollars. 

This log building, so near as any one now living 
can tell, was outside of what is now the southwest 
corner of the public square, in the present paved road- 
way. 

In 1849 a frame court building was erected, occu- 
pied in 1850, and a brick office building was on the 
east side and one on the west, for treasurer and audi- 
tor, and for recorder and clerk, all fronting the south. 
Cost of all about ten thousand dollars. 

For about thirty years these buildings and a frame 
jail building, supplied the needs of the county. But 
it was decided to erect a more costly and larger build- 
ing in 1878, and on September ioth of that year the 
corner stone of the present brick and stone build- 
ing was laid, with masonic ceremonies, in the presence 
of a large 1 assemblage of citizens. The building was 
ready for use in 1880. Cost $52,000. In round num- 
bers, and also quite exact, the log building was in use 
ten years, the frame buildings thirty years, and the 
present one has been in use twenty years. 

For sixty years Crown Point has been of Lake 
the county seat. For sixty-two years courts of justice 
have in Crown Point been held. 

The third court house of Lake County was built 
near the center of what Solon Robinson marked out 
and donated for a public square, to be free from fence 
or obstruction for the common use of all the citizens. 



482 



NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



But originators, donors, and founders cannot bind 
altogether those who come after them ; and the pres- 
ent arrangements seem to suit the citizens of the pres- 
ent. What other generations may do> remains for other 
generations to see. 

In 1882 was built on Main street, on a lot adjoining 
the Methodist church, reserved for many years by 
Carter & Carter, of New York City, as a location for 
an Episcopal church, a brick jail edifice, at a cost of 
about $24,000. 

Around the court house yard, was laid in 1889, a 
walk ten feet in width, of sandsto/ne, six inches in 
depth, and about sixty-four rods in length. The yard 
is about 315 feet from north to south and about 220 
from east to west. Auditor, M. Grimmer. 



PORTER COUNTY. 




000. 



A frame court 
house was built in 
1837. A log jail 
was put up in 1838. 
In 1853 was erected 
a brick court house, 
costing about $13,- 
000. In 1 871 was 
built a jail costing 
$26,0 00. Co m- 
menced in 1883, fin- 
ished in 1885, the 
present court house 
was built of Bedford 
stone. Cost $149,- 
Auditor of Porter County, M. J. Stinchfield. 



COURT HOUSES. 



483 




LA PORTE COUNTY. 

In La Porte 

County, the town 
of La Porte hav- 
ing been selected 
for the county 
seat, the Commis- 
sioners contracted 
for a brick court 
house in 1833, to 
be forty feet 
square, and to cost 

$3,975- The Y also 
arranged for a jail 
buildmg to cost 
$460. These build- 
ings were not 
completed, prob- 
bably, until 1834. 
The La Porte County court house of the present, 
the corner stone having been laid June 30, 1892, by the 
Grand Lodge of A. F. A. Masons of the State of Indi- 
ana, is the grandest temple of justice in northwestern 
Indiana. It was completed in 1894. The cost was 
$305,000. It is of brown stone from Lake Superior 
It has three stories. The workmanship is excellent. 
It contains rooms well arranged for the accommoda- 
tion of farmers' families when they come to town on 
any business. It is only the second court house of the 
county; and judging from its looks, one would not 
suppose another would ever be needed. 

The ample ground around the building is in fine 
condition, well kept with good stone walks. The iron 
railing for the fastening of horses is on only three 




484 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

sides. On the main street in front of the public square 
no teams can be tied. It is a good arrangement to 
have the front always clear. 

Auditor of La Porte County, F. H. Doran. 

Note : T have found the auditors of the counties 
intelligent, accommodating men, well informed and 
ready to give information, and for their courtesies to 
me, I here return hearty thanks. T. H. B. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



"ARCHAEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS." 

In addition to the facts given in Chapter IV, the 
following from Lake County 1884, is added here. 

''The finest collection of American antiquities in 
this county has been made by W. W. Cheshire, an en- 
thusiastic archaeologist and member of the Indiana 
Archaeological Society. In the department of arrow 
and spear heads Dr. Herbert S. Ball has a fine col- 
lection, and in purely human remains he has prob- 
ably the best in the county. Of fossil shells the finest 
are probably in the possession of T. H. Ball. 

In the cabinet of W. W. Cheshire are some three 
hundred specimens of stone implements collected in 
this county, some having been obtained in every 
township. Among the stone axes are some very fine 
specimens, one weighing six and three-fourth pounds, 
and one being only two inches long and an inch and a 
half broad, a miniature or toy axe. Ot the axes there 
are, collected in this county, about two dozen. Of 
arrow heads there are about one hundred. Some of 
these are remarkable for beauty and regularity. One 
is of chalcedony, of the variety called agate, one and 
five-eighths of an inch wide and two and six-eighths 
inches long. One of copper, apparently molded, four 
and three-eighths inches long and one inch and one- 
fourth wide, with three small notches on each side of 



486 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

the shaft. This was found in St. Johns township. 

There is in this cabinet a piece of copper ore found 
near Lowell. One stone arrow head is worked with 
a twist as though designed to give it a whirling mo- 
tion in the air. There is here also the breast bone of 
a wild goose, shot in the Kankakee marsh some years 
ago through which is the arrow head which was then 
in the breast of the living goose. This is of bone, 
nicely made, is considered by some of us to be Esqui- 
maux workmanship, and is nine inches long, a half 
inch wide, slightly curved, and has four sides or faces. 
The shaft that was evidently inserted in the arrow is 
about one inch long and is finely wrought to a point. 
* * * There are also here specimens from near 
Hebron * * * of mastodon or mammoth bones 
and teeth." 

Sonle, believed to be genuine, Indian pipes have 
been found, one near Plum Grove ; and in the posses- 
sion of Mr. George Doak, of South-East Grove, is a 
peculiar stone, found near his home, about five and a 
half inches long, an inch wide, three-fourths of an 
inch thick, "the sides slightly oval, smooth, neatly 
wrought, with an orifice half an inch in diameter 
running through the entire length." 

How an Indian could have drilled this orifice and 
for what is a matter of conjecture. 

Of those antiquities and specimens of Indian art 
collected by W. W. Cheshire, who is now a resident in 
Washington City, some are now, (1900) in the cabinet 
of the Crown Point Public School, and some are in the 
hands of Julian H. Youche, an enthusiastic and intel- 
ligent youth, son of Hon. J. W. Youche, and grand- 
son of Dr. J. Higgins, of Crown Point. 

Two copper hatchets, two broken earthen vessels, 



ARCHAEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. 487 

and a pipe, were taken out from those mounds south 
of La Porte, before Dr. Higday explored them ; and 
in one explored by him, Professor Cox reports three 
human skeletons, two copper hatchets, two copper 
needles, some galena, several pieces of mica, and a 
carved pipe, taken out a depth of thirteen feet from 
the surface. In the largest mound of the group, Pro- 
fessor Cox says in his report (Survey of 1873), six- 
teen feet from the surface, two full size human skele- 
tons were found and "a pipe, a copper needle, frag- 
ments of pottery, and part of a marine shell (Cardium 
magnum)." 

In some of these mounds earthen vessels were 
found containing black mold, which, it has been con- 
jectured, was once food buried with the dead, to sus- 
tain them until they became settled in the "happy 
hunting ground" on the other side. And this the 
learned geologist calls a reasonable inference, "around 
which," he says, "clusters a world of interest, com- 
ing from the dark, forgotten past, as a ray of light that 
has bridged centuries to tell its wondrous story." And 
so this black mold is regarded as indicating firm belief 
in a future existence, perhaps in immortality. 

A beautiful specimen of wrought copper, taken 
from a wolf hole in Hanover Township, is in the pos- 
session of Mrs. M. J. Cutler, of Kankakee, 111., who 
was a daughter of Judge Ball, of Lake County. This 
instrument, for such it seems to have been, is about 
three and a half inches long and one inch and a half 
broad at what may be called the cutting end, which 
has a rounded but not a sharp edge. It is about one 
fourth of an inch in thickness. It bears upon it what 
seem to be the marks of a hammer. 

The owner of this piece of copper has also in her 



488 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



possession an instrument which appears to be steel, 
nearly two inches long, the shaft round, the small 
end edged, not pointed, "the head on the top is flat 
and very smooth, and besides this surface it has twelve 
small plane sides, each smooth and well wrought," 
and this was found, not in the ground, but, about 
1850, "was taken from near the heart of a majestic 
oak" that grew on that grand bluff on the northeast 
bank of the Lake of the Red Cedars. One hundred 
and seventy layers of wood in that oak tree were 
counted outside of this piece of well wrought steel, 
and taking that number in years from 1850, will bring 
one back to 1680, or to about the time when La Salle 
crossed these counties. Did he, or some other French 
explorer, drive that into a sapling? 

Its antiquity is not very great compared, probably, 
with the instrument of copper ; but it must have been 
made in some, probably, European workshop, more 
than two hundred and twenty years ago. 

HUMAN REMAINS. 

About ten years ago some of the inhabitants of 
Brunswick discovered a large bed of sand on section 
19, the southwest quarter, township 34, range 9, on the 
bluff along the west side of West Creek, and from 
this sand were taken out several human skeletons, 
supposed to be Indian remains. 

The largest "find" of human remains in Lake 
County was in October, 1880, of which a lengthy ac- 
count may be found in "Lake County, 1884," pages 
327 to 330. A good many copies of this book are 
probably yet in Lake County. A few statements from 
that full account are here given: 

Two young men, Orlando Russell and Frank Rus- 



ARCHEAOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. 489 

sell, commenced, October I, 1880, to prepare a foun- 
dation for a saw-mill at the exact "head," as the set- 
tlers in early times called it, of the Red Cedar Lake. 

The spot selected was a little mound on, the lake 
shore, sloping eastward, westward, and southward, 
and with a very gradual slope northward. "It was a 
beautiful and sunny knoll, raised but a few feet above 
the wave-washed beach of pure, white sand, and had 
been the camping ground the summer before, for 
many a day and night, of a large pleasure party." 

A scrubby burr oak tree was standing a few feet 
from the water line. The plow share, "the white 
man's plowshare," passed over the green, beautiful 
surface, and five skeletons were struck, all in one mass, 
at a depth of about one foot. Six more were reached 
before the plow had gone two feet in depth. With 
these were some rodent bones and some large shells. 
A few days afterward, hearing of this discovery, for, 
for forty-five years no spot around that lake had been 
supposed to be more free from human remains, T. H. 
Ball and his son, Herbert S. Ball, made a visit to the 
spot. It was near what had been for many years the 
home of the one and the birth-place of the other. 

The son had then but lately returned from the 
great plains of Northwestern Texas, where, on Blanco 
Canyon, he had examined human remains supposed 
to be three hundred years old. He soon commenced 
a search under the burr oak. He found a piece of lead 
ore, then an arrow head, and then an entire skeleton. 
One large root of the tree pressed hard upon the skull, 
which was towards the east. Soon the tree was re- 
moved and another skeleton was there with the head 
toward the west. In all, twenty skeletons were found 



490 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

near the surface of that little mound, one of the most 
sunny spots anywhere around that lake. 

About two hundred rings of what is called annual 
growth were counted on that oak tree. The tree had 
evidently grown since the burial. And these remains 
were all of men in the prime of life. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



BIRTH PLACES OF THE PIONEERS. 

It is risky to make sweeping statements, especially 
where the statement implies more knowledge than 
most men have or can have. As an illustration, in the 
history of Indiana by Goodrich and Tuttle, one of the 
standard State histories, it is said, on page 447, refer- 
ring to the trial and execution of a man for murdering 
some Indians, "Such was the result of the first case on 
record in America where a white man was hung for 
killing an Indian." Again, on page 449, mentioning 
two more men who were tried and executed for hav- 
ing part in the same murder it is added. "Thus ended 
the only trial where convictions of murder were ever 
had, followed by the execution of white men for kill- 
ing Indians in the United States." 

To makq such statements is assuming a large 
amount of knowledge. Now, whoever will look into 
Martyn's excellent history of the Pilgrim Fathers, 
pages 371, 372, will there find that in 1636 a lone In- 
dian, a trader, but an Indian, was murdered by some 
white men, and that "three of the murderers were 
caught, tried at Plymouth, found guilty and hung." 

And so sure was such strict justice administered 
by those noble men, the Pilgrims, that Martyn says : 
"It was as certain death to kill an Indian in the for- 
ests of America, as to slay a noble in the crowded 



492 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

streets of London." Such facts, in studying the his- 
tory of their state, the children of Indiana ought to 
know. 

But another illustration of the danger of missing 
accuracy in these sweeping statements, and one bear- 
ing on the subject of this chapter, is taken from "The 
Indianian," a high class,illustrated, monthly magazine, 
published at Indianapolis. This is from the April num- 
ber of 1899, in an article on Henry County. 

"The early settlers of Indiana, in every part, were 
mainly from the South, coming from Kentucky, Ten- 
nessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Here and there 
would be a family from Pennsylvania, and occasionally 
one from New England, but the great majority were 
from the South.," The sweeping clause in this is, "in 
every part." The writer certainly had not penetrated 
into the Northwestern part. If he had said, "in most 
parts of the State," it would have done very well, "in 
many parts" would have been still better ; but "in 
every part" was more than he knew. 

As giving the birth place of "early settlers," some 
of the New England families will here be named who 
made their homes in Lake County. Commencing in 
the center of the county may be first named Solon 
Robinson, a native of Connecticut; then the Holton 
families from Massachusetts and Vermont, the Wells 
family and Mrs. Eddy, and Luman A. Fowler, from 
Massachusetts originally; W. R. Williams, the Sher- 
man family, (Mrs. Calista Sherman, born in Vermont 
in 1789, having fifty-two descendants living in 1884), 
and another Holton family descendants of Dr. Ira 
Holton, and Mrs. Roselinda Holton, a sister of Mrs. 
Sherman, all New Englanders,. Then the large 
Wheeler family; and indeed the early Crown Point 



BIRTH PLACES OF THE PIONEERS. 493 

was mostly of New England blood. Going out from 
Crown Point, among others, the following pioneer 
New England families are found : The family of John 
Wood on Deep River; the Humphrey and Wood- 
bridge families on Eagle Creek Prairie; the Ball and 
Warriner families at the Lake of the Red Cedars ; and 
the large Taylor, Edgerton and Palmer families, whose 
descendants are now the large Creston commun- 
ity, all of New England origin. Again, there may be 
named the Kenney families of Orchard Grove from 
Maine; the Warner families from Connecticut; the 
Saxton family of Merrillville, having still a conch shell 
brought here by the pioneer, Ebenezer Saxton, which 
shell, according to their family tradition, came over in 
the May Flower. James Farwell and family from Ver- 
mont, also John Bothwell ; George Willey and Charles 
Marvin from Connecticut originally; Elijah Morton 
from Vermont; the Spaulding family and yet others 
of New England descent. Not to mention the later 
"New Hampshire Settlement" in the center of Lake 
Prairie, not to mention the Towle families and others 
in the city of Hammond, in the early days New Eng- 
land families and "York- Yankees" were well scattered 
over Lake County. 

Solon Robinson, the authority for Lake County in 
its earliest years, stating what it had become in 1847, 
says : That there were then in the county about fifty 
frame houses, five churches, two brick dwelling 
houses, two brick offices, and one small out bui lding, 
these the only brick buildings then in the county 
and these at Crown Point, and four or five stores in the 
county; and then he adds: "Majority of the inhab- 
itants Yorkers and Yankees. About one hundred 



494 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

German families, fifteen or twenty Irish, about twelve 
English." 

Going now to La Porte County, General Packard, 
an authority for that county, says : "The first set- 
tlers in Michigan City arrived in 1833, and it may 
readily be presumed that they found few attractions 
to welcome them. To their view there was presented 
only sand hills and swamps., Hoosier Slide towered 
up many feet higher than now, * * * and further 
back across the creek that passed through the woods, 
* * * a low, wet, swampy tract of country occu- 
pied all the locality." But in imagination, discour- 
aging as the prospect was, they saw a harbor and a 
city destined to be there. A town was started. Its 
growth in 1834, 1835, and 1836, was astonishingly 
rapid. There were hotels and business houses, and 
W. D. Woodward, who came in 1836, says that there 
were then nearly three thousand inhabitants. 

"At the end of 1836, besides the numerous ware- 
houses and commission and forwarding houses, there 
were twelve dry goods stores." And the first log 
cabin, so far as is known, had been built in August, 
1833. And now General Packard speaks of the early 
settlers, "They who first peopled Michigan City were 
pushing, active, intelligent, and enterprising men. 
Some of them became the heaviest business men at 
that time in the State. They were chiefly from the 
eastern States ; and with them, to suggest a business 
enterprise was to see it accomplished." 

Surely the writer in "The Indianian" had not ex- 
amined the early settlement of the northwestern corner 
of Indiana. It cannot be said accurately that the early 
settlers here were "mainly" from "Kentucky, Ten- 
nessee, Virginia, and the Carolirias." 



BIRTH PLACES OF THE PIONEERS. 495 

While just credit is given to what Southern fami- 
lies did come here, the enterprise and energy and in- 
dustry that have made this region what now it is, came 
''mainly" from New England, New York, Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Ger- 
many, Holland, Sweden, and Norway. 

Note. — When in 1835 Abijah R. Bigelow settled 
in. La Porte County, in Clinton township, "he brought 
a small colony with him who were mostly Canadians.'' 

East of Hebron, in Porter County, was a neigh- 
borhood of early settlers called Yankee Town. 

Furthermore, in regard to the settlers of La Porte 
County, Professor Cox, State Geologist, in his report 
for 1873, says: "Though a few French were num- 
bered among the first settlers, the greater portion of 
the present population trace their ancestry to New 
York, Pennsylvania, and New England, and retain in 
a marked degree the characteristic habits, thrift and 
energy of their ancestors-" 

From the enrollment of the Old Settlers' Associa- 
tion of La Porte County it appears that of the constit- 
uent members, in number 108, there were born in In- 
diana 18, in Pennsylvania 12, in New England 12, in 
Ohio 18, in New York 19, in the South 19, in England 
2, and in Scotland, Ireland, Spain, District of Colum- 
bia, New Jersey, Illinois, and Madeira Island, one 
each, and one with no birth place given, making 69 
from the eastward as against 19 from the South, not 
counting those born in Indiana and Illinois, which 
would make 19 more, or as many as came from the 
South. 

And yet further, from a careful examination of the 
full enrollment of more than seven hundred mem- 
bers, it has been found that at least 92 of the early 



496 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

settlers were born in New England, 150 in New York, 
53 in Pennsylvania, 109 in Ohio, 34 in various eastern 
places, 161 in Indiana, and in in the South, making 
438 from the east as against in from, the South, not 
counting those born in Indiana. 

The early settlers of southern Indiana, probably of 
Central Indiana, were no doubt quite largely from 
the South, and some of them brought their slaves with 
them, and held on to them for years ; but qute surely 
Northern Indiana, and especially the north tier of 
counties, was not settled up that way, and slaves, as 
such, could not have lived so near to what was in those 
days the line of freedom. In this latitude, of forty-one 
and a half degrees, were some of the most northern 
stations of that once noted Under Ground Railroad. 

Evidence is not at hand for giving the birth places 
of pioneers south of the river; but some were from 
the east, some from the south, and some from Europe. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



McCARTY. 



From the report for 1898 of the Historical Secre- 
tary of the Lake County Old Settlers' Association the 
following is taken : 

"Some weeks ago I found in the possession of Mr. 
W. McCarty of Creston, a grandson of Judge B. Mc- 
Carty, the old Day Book of E. S. McCarty of West 
Point. 

"Its opening date is July 1 or 2, 1839. I think 
it is the oldest day book existing in the county. The 
store was first opened by Dr. Lilley inMay,i837. Some 
of the entries are copied as itemsi of interest for this 
generation. I omit names now, giving prices: 1 
lb. saleratus, 19 ; 1 lb. tea, 50 ; 1 qt. molasses, 25 ; 6 
yds. calico, 24; 1.44; 1 spool thread, 13; 1-2 yd. mus- 
lin, 13 ; 1 ball wicking, 13 ; 2 lbs. sugar, 34; 4 gals, gin 
(1.50) 6.00; 1 gal. whiskey, 56; 1-2 doz. brooms, 1.50; 
1 lb. raisins, 25. 

Again, a few names : Robert Wilkinson, 6 yds. 
calico, 38, 2.28; Foley, 3 pints gin, 75; J. C. Batten, 
8 yds. sheeting, 1.34; 2 pair socks, 1.25; 1 pair stock- 
ings, 75 ; 2 yds. sheeting, 34 ; James Farwell, 2 lbs, to- 
bacco, 50; Solomon Nordyke, 1 set buttons, 38; then 
there is a credit of 6 days work 4.50, 4 days work (75) 
3.00. 

Again, a few more items showing prices. 1 bunch 



498 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

quills, 50; 1 oz. wafers, 13; 8 yds. gingham, 3.00; 1 
paper needles, 13; 5 yds. satinet (1.25) 6.25; 15 yds. 
sheeting, 2.50; 2 doz. buttons, 25 ; 1 pair slippers, 1.50; 
1 set chairs, 3. £5; 1 lb. shot, 16; 1 paper pins, 13; 2 
lbs. nails, 30; Wm. Rockwell, 1 pint molasses, 13; Syl- 
vester Green, 1 quire paper, 25 ; H. Wells, 1 quire 
paper, 25; H. S. Pelton, 4 lbs, shot, 16, 64. Brick 
were made at West Point and sold. A memorandum 
says : "Commenced molding on the 27th day of May, 
1840." As showing prices some entries are: 
John Foley, Dr. 

Hard brick 1000. 4.00 

Soft " 1000. 2.00 

Lewis Warriner, Dr. 

1 500 hard brick 6.00 

500 soft brick 1.00 

Paid Peter Bowen for threshing wheat 13 J cents a 
bushel. 

Showing prices then. paid for work: 

E. F, Hackley, 75 cents day, 61-2 days, 4.88. 

9 days work on mill, 6.75. 

For more common labor : 

Leonard Stilson, 2 days, 50, 1.00; 10 days work, 
5.00; 1000 rails (making) 5.00; 3460 rails made, 17.30. 

Showing prices of lumber: 

Henry Dodge, 300 feet flooring, 80, 2.40. 

Paid for making coat $3.00. 

Jabez Clark, Cr., 9 lbs. butter, 1.12 1-2. Some one 
Cr. chicken, 12. 

This day book through these extracts shows what 
the pioneers paid for what they called "store goods," 
and what they received for their own work. 

Other names, as of the Myricks, William and Elias, 
of S. D. Bryant, Horace Wood, and many others, on 



MCCARTY. 499 



that day book, were sixty years ago well-known names 
in Lake County, and their places of residence* over 
quite a large area in the county show that the West 
Point store of 1837, 1838, 1839, and 1840, was very 
centrally located, and that West Point itself might well 
be as it was, a competing point in 1840 for the county 
seat of Lake. 

JUDGE McCARTY. 

Where Benjamin McCarty was born or when has 
not been ascertained, but he first appears in this 
history as an early settler in La Porte County and as 
its first sheriff. The county was organized in 1832, one 
hundred families then being within its limts, and 
when the first Board of Commissioners met May 28, 
1832, he was "the acting sheriff." He was afterwards 
elected Probate Judge and as such his name appears 
among those solemnizing marriage in La Porte 
County twice in 1833 and once in 1834. 

He soon became a pioneer in Porter County, where 
he selected a central location and secured on his 
quarter section, "the geographical center of the 
county," the location of the county seat of Porter 
County. This was in 1836. For a few years the 
family resided in Porter County, and then passed 
further west and became pioneers in Lake County. 

He obtained what was known to early settlers as 
the Lilley place on the east side of the Red Cedar 
Lake, where had been kept by Dr. Calvin Lilley a 
tavern and a store, and laid off town lots here, named 
the place West Point, and entered into competition 
with Solon Robinson and Judge Clark to secure the 
location in 1840 of the county seat of Lake County 



500 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

But West Point was not in the center of the county 
and Judge McCarty's second town failed. 

The McCarty family at this time consisted of him- 
self and wife, six sons, E. Smiley, William Pleasant, 
Franklin, Fayette Asbury, Morgan, and Jonathon, and 
two daughters, Hannah and Candace. Four of the 
sons were young men, the two daughters were young 
ladies. The two sons known as Smiley and William 
had each a fine black saddle horse, probably as fine 
looking animals as were then in Lake County, and the 
other sons were well provided for also in the line of 
steeds. 

They were the solid young men and boys of the 
community, more cultivated and better educated than 
many, quite polished and dignified. Some of the 
young men became teachers in the early public 
schools ; the young ladies were soon married, the 
younger, Candace, marrying George Belshaw, who be- 
came afterward a large wheat raiser in Oregon; and 
finally the family, except one living son, and their 
dead, all left the county for Oregon and Iowa. Of 
one of these sons who went to Oregon, the rest of 
this notice will treat, the sketch having been written 
in 1872 and published in "Lake Couny, 1872," a work 
out of print. 

FAYETTE ASBURY McCARTY. 

He went into the Far West, beyond the Rocky 
Mountains, about twenty years ago [1852]. The 
maiden whom he had chosen to become his wife, fell 
with others a victim to Indian border strife just before 
the time set for their marriage. Lone in heart, he 
engaged for three years, in warfare against the In- 
dians : was four times wounded by them ; killed with 



MCCARTY. 501 



his own hand twenty-one of the Red Warriors who 
had burned the dwelling, and killed the whole family 
of her whom he loved. Like Logan, the Mingo, 
against the whites, he could say, "I have killed many ;" 
and then he commenced his wanderings. He went 
among the mines ; he went up into Alaska, then Rus- 
sian America; he went down into South America; he 
crossed the ocean — the Pacific; spent some time in 
China; visited the Sandwich Islands on his return; 
made money among the mines ; and after fourteen 
years' absence, visited, some six or seven years ago, 
the haunts of his youth in Lake County. He found 
here some old friends ; narrated to* us his adventures ; 
went to New York to take passage again for the 
mines ; was taken sick, and died soon after reaching 
the gold region at Idaho. Successful in obtaining 
gold, noble in disposition, lonely in heart in the sad 
romance of his life, he leaves his name and memory 
to be carefully treasured up by the friends of his boy- 
hood at Cedar Lake. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



ATTEMPTS TO CHANGE. 

Lake County came quite near losing about seventy 
square miles of area in the fall of i860. 

From the records of the Commissioners' Court of 
Lake County, it appears that on Friday, September 7, 
i860, according to Order No. 19. George Earle pre- 
sented a petition duly signed in which the petitioners 
asked that a part of the territory of Lake County be 
set off to Porter County. The bounderies were thus 
described: Commencing at the southeast corner of 
section 4, township 35, range 7 west, thence west to 
the southwest quarter of section 3, township 35, range 
8, then north on the section line to the northwest 
corner of section 34, township 36, range 8, then west to 
the range line between ranges 8 and 9, then north to 
Lake Michigan, then along the lake easterly to the 
line between Lake and Porter Counties, then south 
to the place of beginning. 

There were present at that session only two Com- 
missioners, John Underwood and Adam Schmall. The 
petition was ordered to be filed and the case was con- 
tinued. 

December 7, i860, only the same two Commis- 
sioners were present. Order No. 12 says, in regard 
to this petition, there being a difference of opinon be- 



ATTEMPTS TO CHANGE." 503 

tween the two members of the Board who were pres- 
ent, the decision was deferred until the March .term 
of 1861. And it is said in the records, "See Revised 
Statutes, Vol I, Chap. 20, section 8, page 225." 

From information furnished by Mr. John Under- 
wood, who is not now living, the decision of the case 
was postponed by his suggestion, as he was not in 
favor of granting the petition, and in the winter the 
situation of affairs was brought to the attention of the 
representative from Lake at Indianapolis, probably 
Hon. Bartlett Woods, a man ever true to what he re- 
gards as the interest of Lake County, or Hon. E. 
Griffin, and by act of the Legislature the law as it then 
stood, which authorized such a setting off from one 
county to another, was changed, — see act March 1, 
1861, — and when the Commissioners met March 6, 
1861, they passed the following: Order No. 18. "It 
is ordered that said petition be dismissed." 

Thus ended the effort to form, it was supposed, a 
new county, presumably with Hobart for the county 
seat. ___ __ 

According to that History known as "Porter and 
Lake," (page 56), an effort had been made in 1859 
to form a county to be called Linn, from territory then 
being a part of Porter and a part of La Porte coun- 
ties, Michigan City to be the county seat. Petitions 
signed by more than two thousand citizens were pre- 
sented to the Porter County Commissioners request- 
ing this setting off of a part of Porter into a new 
county. 

This the Commissioners declined to do. "The 
Commissioners of La Porte County disposed of the 



504 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. ~ 

question in a similar summary manner and the plan 
was abandoned." "Porter and Lake," page 57.* 

As years have passed along there has been some- 
thing printed, something said, in regard to the removal 
yet again of the county seat of Lake County. 

The following paragraph is from the report made 
at the Old Settlers' anniversary in 1891 : 

"In the winter of 1890 and 1891 a strenuous effort 
was made by some Hammond citizens to have a bill 
passed through the State Legislature leading to a re- 
moval of the county seat to Hammond. Crown Point 
citizens and some in other counties, especially in La 
Porte County, worked diligently against the bill, and 
it was at length defeated. No little excitement was 
awakened in the county by this attempt of the young 
manufacturing city to take, from the center of the 
county to the border of the city of Chicago, the county 
seat of Lake." 

An effort to quite materially change Commission- 
ers' districts in Lake County was made by some young 
men of Hammond. 

This is the record, also from a report made at an 
Old Settlers' anniversary: 

"In March of this year, 1898, a petition from Ham- 
mond with 734 signatures was presented to the County 
Commissions s asking for the re-districting of the 
county so that the three Commissioners' districts 



* I have had no access to the records in Porter County to 
verify the above statement; but as the law was in 1859 the Com- 
missioners had not much discretionary power. At least it was 
Mr. Underwood's opinion that, if the law had not been changed, 
the Lake County Commissioners would have been obliged, in 
March, 1861, to grant Mr. Earle's petition. Only two Commis- 
sioners being present in December, 1860, and the action of one 
of them in the matter, saved to Lake County what is now 
Hobart Township and a large part of Calumet. T. H. B. 



ATTEMPTS TO CHANGE. 505 

should run north and south through the county in 
strips about five miles wide and thirty miles long, in- 
stead of continuing, as they have done, to run across 
the county from east to west. A day was set by the 
County Board for hearing the matter and W. B. Read- 
ing of Hammond advocated the measure. Remon- 
strances were presented signed by 1.3 n citizens of 
cne central and southern parts of the countv ; the Com- 
missioners' Court room was well filled with interested 
citizens; Hon. B. Woods spoke against the petition 
in behalf of the remonstrants ; and the Commissioners 
declined to grant the petition." 

Hon. Bartlett Woods, a native of England, becom- 
ing a citizen here in 1837, now over eighty years of 
age, has been for many years the foremost man in 
Lake County to advocate, even if he stood alone, 
what he believed to be just and right. A number of 
good and true men whom Lake County has sadly 
missed in her civil and political affairs, have passed 
away, leaving him, among men in public life, almost 
alone of his generation ; but in this particular of bat- 
tling bravely for what he regards as right, he may 
quite well be called "the noblest Roman of them all." 

Some disposition in past years was manifested in a 
part of La Porte County for the removal of the county 
seat from the center to a corner, from La Porte to 
Michigan Cityj but although Michigan City became a 
larger place than La Porte that has not seemed to be 
any good reason for removal. Good judgment, and 
that common sense that lets "well enough alone," 
seem likely, in La Porte County, to prevail. 

The question of changing the location of the county 
seat has also had some disturbing influence in Newton 
County; but here the apparent propriety was quite 



506 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

different from what it was in Lake and La Porte, as 
here the suggestion was to remove from near a corner 
to a locality nearer the center, that is, from Kentland 
to Morocco. Kentland has a much finer court yard 
than Morocco could furnish, but the buildings are not 
much, and the town is not specially growing. In 
general, public sentiment is not favorable to such 
changes which must injure the interests of some while 
promoting the interests of others. 

If communities, as well as individuals, would carry 
out in all such matters the principle of the "Golden 
Rule," would actually do to others as, in a change of 
circumstances, they would like to have others do to 
them, there would be much less strife and discord in 
communities and neighborhoods. 

Some one once wrote, "Oh ! it is excellent to have 
a giant's strength, but it is villainous to use it like a 
giant." It is not necessary always for big fish to eat 
up little ones. But if they do, large towns should not 
wish to injure smaller ones. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



ALTITUDES. 



The authorities for the altitudes given below are 
various. Some of the altitudes, those in La Porte 
County, are from Professor Cox, former State Geolo- 
gist of Indiana. Those in Porter County are from 
Frank Leverett, from Gannett, from Campbell's Sur- 
vey of the Kankakee Region, and from Henry Rankin, 
former county surveyor of Porter. Those in Lake 
County are from the same, substituting for Henry 
Rankin the name of George Fisher,county surveyor of 
Lake County. These altitudes for Porter and Lake 
are taken from "The Geology of Lake and Porter 
Counties" by W. S. Blatchley. In La Porte, eleva- 
tion above the sea level, 810 feet; at Wanatah, 710; at 
La Crosse, 662;* and about two miles north of La 
Porte, said to be the highest point in the county, 870 
feet, or 270 above Lake Michigan. This authority 
makes Lake Michigan 600 feet above the sea level, 
and a later authority, 1896, makes it only 582 feet. 

In Porter County about a mile northwest from 
Valparaiso 840 feet; Flint Lake, 825; Valparaiso, 



* I was at La Crosse on Wednesday, August 16, 1899, and 
found there a party of engineers taking altitudes along the 
Pan Handle line. They gave to me the altitude in front of 
their station 674 feet. I think these figures were not de- 
rived from a barometer. T. H. B. 



508 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

north part, 820, court house 803 ; Hebron, 713 ; Kouts, 
687; Kankakee River, Baum's Bridge, 659; Dunn's 
Bridge, 663 ; (these both from surface of the water in 
the river) ; Chesterton, 659 ; and, highest point meas- 
ured, some four miles north of Valparaiso and a mile 
east, 888 feet. 

It looks a little unreasonable that Chesterton is no 
higher in its elevation above sea level than the Ken- 
kakee River at Baum's Bridge. And one authority 
gives Gossett's Mill Pond, which is, or was, about six 
miles north and west from Valparaiso, as only 620 feet. 
The writer, here, will not vouch for the accuracy of 
these figures, and Mr. Rankin gives Chesterton as 670 
feet. The other figures, 659, are from Mr. Frank 
Leverett of Iowa, who it seems, made some examina- 
tion of our Calumet Region. 

In Lake County the following elevations have been 
given : In Crown Point, court house yard, by G. 
Fisher, county surveyor, 714 feet, at Creston, by Mr. 
F. Leverett, 740 feet, and Creston is on a prairie and 
the water on the road from Crown Point to Creston, 
for most of the way, runs southward. Also, from 
survey made, the county surveyor, G. Fisher, has 
found that the point where the road, half a mile east of 
Creston, crosses the township line three-quarters of 
a mile north, is fourteen feet lower than the south end 
of the pavement in Crown Point. Surely no one can 
stand in that road on that township line and look down 
upon Creston, over the low land between, and reason- 
ably suppose that Creston is on ground some forty 
feet higher than the ground where he stands. 

Mr. Leverett also gives Palmer 733 feet, and the 
watershed "near head waters of Eagle Creek and Deep 
River," — and their head waters are several miles apart, 



ALTITUDES. 509 



— 747 feet. Of twenty-seven elevations given in Lake 
County, except at Crown Point, 714, Pan Handle sta- 
tion 695, Erie 702, and Fancher's Lake near Crown 
Point 713 feet, no other, except as given by Mr. Lev- 
erett, comes near to 700 feet. He gives St. Johns 697, 
Lowell 690, Leroy 683, Palmer 733, and the Kankakee 
River at the old mouth of Eagle Creek, which is many 
miles below Baum's Bridge, 660 feet. 

But another authority gives the old Gibson Sta- 
tion 600, Tolleston 607, Lake Michigan 582, Whiting 
606, and Lowell 636. 

The authorities seem to differ quite a little in their 
observations or their estimates. 

There is surely room for doubt as to the accuracy 
of Mr. Leverett's figures, the others being assumed as 
nearly correct. Some of these others are : Hammond 
598; Hessville 623; Griffith 636; Highland 617; Dyer 
638; Ross 638, and Miller's 625. These seven are all 
from Gannett's Dictionary of Altitudes. From 
Campbell's survey are these : Shelby 642 ; Kankakee 
River at Monon Railway Bridge, surface of water, 
635.7, an d at State Line 624.3 feet; thus giving a fall 
from Baum's Bridge, which is four ranges east, of 35 
feet to the State line. 

The highest point in Lake County, leaving Creston 
out till another authority asserts it to be 740 feet, is 
probably on the Watershed line between Crown Point 
and the Red Cedar Lake. 



CHAPER XXXVIII. 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 



WILD FRUIT. 

Mention has elsewhere been made of the abundant 
yield of cranberries and huckleberries. The following 
statements are added. From a marsh, not very large, 
near his home in Hanover township, Mr. H. Van 
Hollen gathered one year a few hundred bushels, and 
the price that year was not less than three dollars per 
bushel. 

Another of the early settlers saw a prospect for a 
good cranberry crop, he also had an opportuity to buy 
forty acres of marsh land for two hundred dollars. He 
made the purchase, the berry crop was large, and the 
price, it is said, was that season five dollars for a 
bushel. He paid for his land and had some hundreds 
of dollars left. 

Professor Cox, the geologist, who explored the 
region around Michigan City in 1873, an d mentioning 
the huckleberry bush on the sandy knolls,, which, he 
says, "is native and very prolific," the fruit of which "is 
highly esteemed and much sought after," adds : 'The 
shipments in the height of the season reach near 
three hundred bushels per day, being, to the berry 
gatherers, a dispensation of ten thousand dollars per 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 511 

annum." He mentions our other abundant native 
fruit, cranberries, and says that "about two miles 
northwest of Michigan City is a marsh of sixty acres 
* * * which, it is asserted, yields, annually from 
one to two hundred bushels of berries per acre." These 
vines are cultivated, that is, they have been planted, 
but they are, in many marshes, the wild or native 
growth. 

THE CALUMET REGION. 

A strip of land, or of marshes and sand ridges, 
across the north part of Lake County, bears the name 
Calumet Region. It barely extends into Porter, but 
does pass out into Illinois. Through it the Calumet 
River flows west and south, and then returning crosses 
the strip almost a second time, passing now north of 
east. The whole area is about seventy square miles. 
The river, winding quite a little in its lower course, 
makes probably seventy-five miles or eighty miles in 
its entire circuit. It is a singular river, a peculiar 
region. Before the railroads came it was peculiarly 
a trapping ground and a grand resort for water-fowls, 
and then for sportsmen. From one of their noted 
resorts on this river have been sent away twelve hun- 
dred ducks as the result of two day's shooting. One 
trapper has taken in the trapping season about three 
thousand musk-rats and mink. As late as 1883 this 
same trapper and his son caught in the fall about fif- 
teen hundred of these valuable fur bearing animals. 
But the region now is mostly given up to railroads 
and to cities. 

DISAPPEARANCE OF WILD ANIMALS. 
When the last deer was seen in Lake County can- 



61'2 Northwestern indianA. 

not certainly be known, but surely very few have been 
in any of the island groves since 1884. 

Occasionally a wolf is yet found, or until very re- 
cently. In the spring of 1869 a wolf and eight young 
ones were killed on the Knoph farm only a mile or 
two east of Crown Point. 

A few musk-rats of the noted Kankakee variety 
yet remain, and now and then there is found a mink. 
John Loague, who has a camp at Red Oak Island, in 
February of 1900 caught a mink which measured three 
feet from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail. It 
was considered a very large one. 

Quails to some extent remain, a few "prairie 
chickens," some few, very few partridges, may possi- 
bly be found on well protected grounds, a few squir- 
rels, many rabbits, some foxes, woodchucks and 
skunks, and a wolf, the last one yet heard of was killed 
near Lake Station in February, 1900, a straggler no 
doubt. Plover and other water fowls yet remain 
along the Kankakee. 

THE WHITE OWL. 

"During one of the very cold and snowy winters of 
our early times, a large white owl, not a native of 
this region, was shot on the west side of Cedar Lake. 
The bird seemed, from its appearance, so thoroughly 
protected was it from cold, and so white, to be a moun- 
tain or an Arctic denizen ; and it was agreed to call 
it a Rocky Mountain Owl, brought out of its usual 
range and haunts by the great westerly storm. 

THE BALD EAGLE. 

"In 1857 a bald eagle was s,hot on the west side of 
Cedar Lake by David Martin, which measured from tip 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 513 

to tip of the wings, some seven and a half feet. These 
American birds, formerly frequent visitors at that 
lake, have Seen rarely shot, and are now seldom seen. 
This is supposed to have been the last one killed 
around that lake. 

THE SWAN. 

"In 1869, Herbert S. Ball, coming up to his home 
at Crown Point, through the woods east of Cedar 
Lake, met a magnificent water-fowl which he captured 
and killed. The plumage was of snowy whiteness, 
very pure and beautiful. The wings extended from 
tip to tip nearly eight feet. The head was almost 
twice the length, and some three times the magni- 
tude of the head of a wild goose. Its neck was very 
long. Its wings were broad and strong. The long 
bone of the wing was in length nearly eleven inches. 
When examined at Crown Point this majestic bird was 
unhesitatingly pronounced to be an American wild 
swan, of which a few individuals were shot in Cedar 
Lake by Alfred Edgerton a number of years ago." 

DATES OF SOME EARLY MILLS. 

Mills in La Porte County. In 1830 a saw-mill by 
Captain Andrew near the present La Porte. In 1832 
a saw-mill by Chester Vail. In 1833 a saw-mill by 
Jacob Bryant at Holmesville. Also in 1833 the Ross 
mill in Springfield township by Erastus Quivey. Also 
in 1833 three mills in Cool Spring township : One by 
General Orr, one by Arba Heald, one by Walker & 
Johnson. Also in 1833 two grist-mills, in Union 
township, one by John Winchell, one by John and 
Henry Vail. 

In 1834 a fine grist-mill on Trail Creek near Michi- 



514 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

gan City. This mill became noted, customers coming 
to it from long distances. Also in 1834 two grist- 
mills in Springfield township, one by Joseph Pagin 
and one by David Pagin. Also in 1834 a saw-mill 
in Galena township, the first, and another in Cool 
Spring township. 

In 1835 the first saw-mill in Pleasant township on 
the Little Kankakee. And in 1835 two more in 
Springfield township, one by Jacob Early, one by 
Charles Vail 

In 1836 a saw-mTIl in Scipio township on Mill 
Creek by Asaph Webster, and a grist-mill on Spring 
Creek by Aaron Stanton. 

In 1837 the Bigelow mills completed, and in 1838 
the grist-mill at Union Mills by Dr. Everts. 

It thus appears that there was no lack of mills in 
La Porte County before the year came of 1840.* 

Mills in White County. 

In 1836 Joseph Bothrock built the first saw-mill. 

In 1844 William Sill started the first grist-mill 
at a place called Norway on the Tippecanoe. An 
earlier mill for the settlers was in the edge of Carroll 
County. Robert Barr had a saw-mill on Moot's Creek 
in 1838. 

Mills in Porter County. 

In 1836 on Fort Creek at City West was a saw-mill 
erected, one of the early ones, but not one of long du- 
ration. After sawing up timber into the lumber for 
that young city it was abandoned. 

In 1835 or x ^3^ Samuel Shigley built a saw-mill 
on Salt Creek south of Valparaiso one mile. Here 



* Authority, History of La Porte County by C. C. Chap- 
man & Co. 






MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 515 

William Cheney in 1841 built a grist-mill. This is 
said to be one of the best water powers inthe county. 
This became in after years William Sager's flouring 
mill. 

The first saw-mill in what is now Liberty township 
was built by Samuel Olinger in 1836 on a little stream 
called Damon Run. About 1837 William Gossett 
erected a saw-mill on Salt Creek, and soon after 
started a grist-mill which became quite noted in early 
years. ! 

Casteel's mill on Coffee Creek is mentioned as 
as 1836. 

Eglon's was another early mill. 

It is said that the first regularly laid out road in 
Porter County connected Casteel's and Gossett's 

In later years many mills have been erected in the 
county. Mills for carding wool were put in operation 
not far south of Valparaiso, perhaps as early as 1836, 
one of these on Salt Creek built by Jacob Axe. 
Cromwell Axe built a saw-mill in 1842. 

Mills in Lake County. 

Four saw-mills were built in 1837, called Walton's 
Wood's, Dustin's, and Taylor's. The last one was on 
Cedar Creek and soon commenced grinding corn as 
well as sawing. It afterward became known as the 
McCarty mill, but was never very profitable. Wood's 
mill on Deep River soon became a grist-mill with a 
large amount of grinding to be done, persons coming 
with the grain from long distances, and at length 
it became the fine flouring-mill of Nathan Wood of 
Woodvale. Built by his father it passes to his son. 

Other flouring-mills of the county at Hobart, Lo- 
well, and Dyer are of later date. 

Mills in Starke County. 



516 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

These are not early mills, yet the earliest in the 
county. In 1849 Samuel Koontz built the first saw- 
mill, and in 1853 the first grist-mill commeHced work, 
the lumber of which it was constructed having been 
sawed at the Koontz mill. 

LAKE COUNTY GYMNASIUM AND NORMAL 
SCHOOL. 

The first Normal school work in Lake County was 
in 1872. In August of that year T. H. Ball opened a 
school for the instruction of teachers which at length 
took the name given above. Gymnasium was used in 
the German and not the American sense. This school 
closed in 1879. In the first term thirty lectures were 
given on subjects beyond the elementary branches of 
study. Normal classes were afterwards taught by the 
county superintendents. Of these superintendents, 
the present one, Frank E. Cooper, who has been in 
office since April 17, 1882, at length gave uo holding a 
''summer Normal," and the superintendents of some of 
the larger graded schools of the county have since 
conducted a normal school, in July and August of 
each year, at Crown Point. The normal work in Lake 
County is largely now reviewing elementary branches 
for a short term each summer, and is not like the 
work at Valparaiso. 

A PROSPECTIVE INDUSTRY. 

It has been mentioned as a result of drainage in 
Starke County that it was leading into beet culture for 
making sugar. The prospect is now good for this to 
become a large branch of industry. At Shelby, on 
lands of the Lake Agricultural Company, many acres 
in this year of 1900 have been devoted to beet culture. 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 517 

Beets to be shipped to a sugar factory in Michigan are 
growing this year at LeRoy, and in Porter and La 
Porte counties. Near La Crosse a tract of seven thou- 
sand acres of land, called the Huncheon tract, was in 
the spring of this year of 1900 sold to Illinois men at 
the rate of twenty-five dollars per acre, and these men, 
it is reported, "intend putting up there soon a large 
sugar-beet factory." One at La Crosse, one at Shel- 
by, and one at North Judson, will furnish employment 
for many men and boys, and may help to balance the 
influence of the northern line of manufacturing cities. 

SPORTSMEN. 

Several years ago, before the days of steam dredges 
on the Kankakee Marsh, as that marsh region had 
been a great trapping and hunting and camping 
ground for Indians, so it became an attractive region 
for white sportsmen. Not hunters were they nor yet 
trappers, but simply sportsmen, killing wild animals 
for the sake of killing. Sportsmen's homes were 
built at different places on the north side of the river, 
and persons came from various cities to enjoy wild 
life, to shoot wild game. On section sixteen, in 
township thirty-two, range nine, there was a beautiful 
grove. In those years quite far back, it was an island. 
Marsh with water was all round it. The surface 
among the trees was quite level and largely covered 
with beautiful moss. Being on section sixteen it was 
called School Grove Island. In these later years it is 
called Oak Grove. It is still a grove, but not an is- 
land now. Its first inhabitant, when it was an island, 
was John Hunter, a true frontier hunter and trapper, 
living for years, that secluded trapper life, along the 



518 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 



Kankakee, camping on different islands. He at length 
made this island his home. 

Heath & Milligan of Chicago bought some land 
on the island, and they with eight other Chicago men 
built in the fall of 1869 a house for a sportsman's re- 
sort. It was called Camp Milligan. It was kept by 
G. M. Shaver and family. From Chicago and other 
cities men would come with their guns, spend a few 
days, register in a book kept for the purpose their 
success, pay their bills and depart. A regulation of 
this camp was that no game should be sold. It was 
not designed for hunters. Some records are these: 
Eight men in a few days shot sixty-five snipes and 
five hundred and thirteen ducks; four men, days not 
given, shot fifty snipes and five hundred and fifteen 
ducks; "September nth, Sunday, no shooting"; 
shooting from September 1st to 17th "except Sun- 
day." Certainly those sportsmen of thirty years ago 
left a good example for the sportsmen of to-day, an 
example which is not very closely followed. G. M. 
Shaver himself shot in one year eleven hundred ducks 
and other water-fowl. He no doubt could sell. 

In 1871 some Englishmen visited Camp Milligan. 
One was William Parker, understood to be a member 
of the nobility of England, accompanied by an older 
man, Captain Blake. 

In 1872 they returned with a still younger Parker, 
(a very agreeable, pleasant, well educated young man, 
a "younger son" of some noble house), bought land, 
laid out quite an amount of money, established "Cum- 
berland Lodge," besides a dwelling house and barns, 
built kennels and brought from England some sixteen 
very choice hunting dogs of different varieties and 
other choice blooded English dogs, also some Alder- 






MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 519 

ney cows and some horses, obtaining also a black bear 
and some foxes, and seemed to be laying a foundation 
for an English country seat. 

The Parker brothers, especially the younger one, 
the elder one was not at Crown Point much, made a 
very favorable impression upon Crown Point society ; 
but for reasons certainly not made public, they soon 
disposed of their costly establishment, and, probably, 
returned to England. Their place, the name, Cumber- 
land Lodge, being retained, went into the hands of 
some business men of Chicago, some of them very 
gentlemanly men, who kept it up for many years as a 
sportsmen's club house. 

At English Lake, in La Porte County, a quite simi- 
lar club house was built. This has been kept open for 
many years. 

On the south side of the Kankakee, in Newton 
County near Thayer, is quite a large club house, built 
several years ago, and on the river and the Motion 
road, just across from Shelby are several small houses 
for individuals or small parties that come from the 
cities on the Wabash and south of it. On the other 
roads where they cross the Kankakee, are special re- 
sorts for fowling and fishing. The river is very well 
shaded, the water quite pure, the seclusion all one 
need to desire. All these resorts are devoted, partly 
to rest and recuperation in the summer, but largely to 
pleasure. 

At Baum's Bridge on the Kankakee some wealthy 
men from Pennsylvania, from Pittsburg, built a sum- 
mer resort several years ago. Some of them come 
each season to rest and shoot and fish. 

Some families living - on the marsh line also take 
sportsmen as boarders in the shooting season, and 



520 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

from many cities wealthy business men or men of leis- 
ure have for many years spent a few days or a few 
weeks in a year far from the business world in the 
shaded and wild retreats of the noted Kankakee Re- 
gion. But as the drainage becomes more perfect, and 
when the sugar beet enterprise brings thousands of 
acres of that land into cultivation, there will be less to 
attract sportsmen. 



When the time for the land sale for Pulaski 
County was near, it was found that speculators were 
likely to buy up lands which, had been improved by 
squatters. While accounted dishonorable and worse 
than dishonorable this was sometimes done. The 
Golden Rule did not bind men even in those good 
pioneer days. Fearing that their lands might be 
thus bought some early entries were made by a few 
pioneers who had money in their hands. In 1838 S. 
McNutt entered 640 acres ; N. Benjamin and J. H. 
Thompson 320 acres each; and Josiah C. White 800 
acres. 

Some speculators or large land buyers were quite 
honorable. Of this rather small class, it is to be 
feared, was William Wilson, who in 1834, located In- 
dian floats upon two sections of land, 1280 acres, in 
Clinton township, La Porte County. 

The record is: "Mr. Wilson honorably paid the 
settlers on the two sections for all the improvements 
they had made." 



There was one feature of pioneer life that does not 
seem to have been brought out in any descriptions 
of it referred to in Chapter V., nor yet even in that 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 521 

chapter. This special feature may be called "Dona- 
tion Parties." These were gatherings of a congrega- 
tion, bringing good things and also money, to aid the 
pastor and his family. Sometimes the people met at 
some home, or at the pastor's residence, sometimes 
at a school house. They. were made very pleasant 
occasions. 

TELEPHONE COMPANIES. 

The Jasper County Telephone Company, stock- 
holders Delos Thompson, C. C- Sigler, and others, was 
organized in 1895, an< ^ work commenced July 5th of 
chat year. Before the year closed poles were erected 
and wires extended to "Remington, Wolcott, Rey- 
nolds, Brookston, Chalmers," and to Lafayette. The 
towns, and the large farms, and the cattle ranches 
along the Kankakee, indeed all of Jasper, may be con- 
sidered as connected by these wonderful telephone 
wires. The center, of course, is the enterprising city 
of Rensselaer. 

The Crown Point Telephone Company was organ- 
ized April 6,1896. About two hundred and forty tele- 
phones are now in Crown Point, and lines lead out 
to Lowell, where is also a company, to LeRoy, to 
Eagle Creek, to Cedar Lake, and to Hammond. From 
Lowell there is connection with Hebron and Valpar- 
aiso, and with La Porte, and Rensselaer, and over all 
of Northwestern Indiana. In the directory a list of 
126 toll line stations is given extending to Logans- 
port and Kentland and Michigan City and Lake Vil- 
lage. There is a network of telephone wires all over 
these counties now, the prediction of which sixty 
years ago would have astonished the pioneers. It is 
a wonderful means of communication. In some of 



522 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

the neighborhoods in Lake County, connected with 
Crown Point, as at Plum Grove, the families of farm- 
ers in their homes can talk with their neighbors, or 
with persons in their homes at Lowell, at Crown Point, 
at LeRoy, at Hebron, and enjoy the benefit of a per- 
sonal visit. The same in the other counties is also 
now the result of this network of wires. 

IMPROVED ROADS. 

For a number of years Michigan City was the 
great grain market for the majority of the grain raisers 
in this part of the State. From Lake County many 
did their marketing in Chicago. On some of the 
roads was deep sand, and on others, at times, was deep 
mud. Better roads were needed. The first experi- 
ment in roadmaking was done with planks. 

About 1850 the construction commenced of a 
plank road between Valparaiso and Michigan City, and 
one was built on part of the road between Valparaiso 
and La Porte. Some of this latter road was in good 
condition in 1856. These roads were built by com- 
panies or corporations and had toll gates. When 
new they were very good ; but they wore away rapidly ; 
then the roads were very bad. They were expensive 
and not durable and in a few years were given up. 

Years passed. Earth only was used in "working" 
the roads. Small ditches in low places and raising a 
central road bed made some improvement. But dur- 
ing portions of the year many of the roads were still 
in bad condition. Over the country largely the best 
way to secure good roads was studied and discussed. 
It was a question for years to quite an extent before 
the American public. At the 'Columbus Exposition 
in 1893 it receved no little attention. But as early as 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 523 

1885 m White County a beginning was made in con- 
structing "gravel roads." The making of such roads 
has been there continued, and now in this county 
they build "macadam roads." The Auditor of White 
County reported for 1898, bonds for the Ormsby 
Gravel Road, the Chilton Gravel Road, the Thomp- 
son Gravel Road, the Fox Gravel Road, the Powell 
Gravel Road and for two macadam roads, the Vogel 
and the Winkley. Work on some of these roads 
was going on in 1899, Number of miles of gravel 
and macadem roads in White County, when the pres- 
ent roads are completed, 100. 

In Lake County the gravel and macadam roads 
are built "by the townships, Calumet commencing such 
work in 1890. Roads of one variety or of the other, 
the macadam roads, so-called, being the latest, are 
now in Hobart, Calumet, North, Ross, St. Johns, 
Center, and Cedar Creek townships. Number of 
miles in Lake County of these improved roads 75. 
When all are completed in this year of 1900 there will 
be 130 miles. 

In Marion township, in Jasper County, are some 
good gravel roads running through Rensselaer made 
in 1893, and all paid for in 1899. 

In Newton County are also some gravel roads 
leading out from Rose Lawn towards Lake Village 
and one line of road going to Thayer. 

These improved roads in all these counties will 
form not a little part of the large heritage that will be 
left for the coming generation. 



By an act of the Legislature of Indiana in the win- 
ter of 1834 and 1835, provision was made for the or- 
ganization of fifteen counties, among which was Jas- 



524 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

per, but the organization of this county did not take 
place till 1838. Says the Historical Atlas of Indiana, 
certainly a good authority, "This large and sparsely in- 
habited area of thirteen hundred square miles, includ- 
ing, in the southern portion, some of the finest lands 
in the State, was then a far-stretching wild, dotted 
here and there by a solitary cabin, and the Indians 
roamed almost undisturbed in all directions. The 
northern part of this territory was then called Newton 
and the southern part Jasper; the dividing line be- 
tween the two parts was not far from Rensselaer. 
This division was only nominal, however." And this 
appears from the fact that when the County Commis- 
sioners met in March, 1839, one of their first acts was 
to divide Newton County, "or what was more prop- 
erly Newton township, into two townships." One of 
these was named Newton and the other Pinkamink. 

In Newton the house of Joseph D. Yeoman was 
selected as the place for holding the coming May elec- 
tion, and the residence of William Donahoe for Pink- 
amink township, who, although living in a locality said 
to be near Francesville, was in Jasper and not Pul- 
aski County. 

A great advance in population and in wealth took 
place in Jasper County after 1856, the year in which 
the inhabitants learned the value of the mucky prairie 
lands, for Jasper is an agricultural county; but the 
great development of the county has taken place since 
1880, or in the last twenty years, and this by means of 
ditching and tiling, the steam dredge having come 
into use for cutting ditches. Many thousands of 
acres have thus been rendered very productive. 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 525 

ABOUT CHURCHES. 

''The Protestant Methodists have half a dozen 
classes and one or two churches. The Presbyterians 
organized in 1847, an d soon erected a church, which 
now gives place to the grandest and best edifice in the 
county. A church was built in Remington in 1866, 
The Missionary Baptists organized in 1857., The 
Free Wills in 1853. The Church of God in i860. The 
Disciples at Remington in 1867, while the Catholics 
built at Rensselaer in 1866, and at Remington in 1865. 
Within a few years the Lutheran and other denomina- 
tions have erected places of worship at Wheatfield, 
De Motte, Kniman, and various places in the county." 

The above extract is from an editorial in a "Holi- 
day Souvenir Edition" of the People's Pilot, pub- 
lished at Rensselaer in January, 1896. The same pub- 
lication containing long and interesting articles con- 
cerning different denominations, states that "Meth- 
odism invaded Jasper County in 1836," and that an 
organization was effected in 1838, and the first church 
building at Rensselaer dedicated in 1850. 

DEATH BY FREEZING. 

In La Porte County a sad death took place in the 
cold of a winter evening. The month was February. 
The year was 183 1. Settlers were not very many then. 
The township was, in 1834, organized and called 
Wills. In May, 1836, the northeast corner of it be- 
came Hudson township. Into Wills township, as 
afterwards marked out, came in 1830, John Wills and 
three sons, Charles, Daniel, and John E., and other 
settlers followed, among whom were Andrew Shaw, 
John Sissany, and John S. Garroute. Mrs. Mary 



526 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

Garroute, wife of the last named settler, went on 
horseback in February, 1831, over the line into St. 
Joseph County, to visit a sick friend, Mrs. Garwood. 
"The day was clear and cold, and, on her return, she 
stopped at the house of John Wills. After resting 
a short time she continued her journey homeward. 
The wind in the meantime had risen, and the snow 
drifted in sheets." She ought to' have staid in the 
shelter of that home ; but her sense of duty no doubt 
urged her forward. Her struggle for life in the few 
hours that followed had no human witness. It was 
supposed that she dismounted at length from her 
horse, and sought by the exercise of walking to keep 
herself from freezing. What was known was the sad 
fact that the mail carrier, travelling on snow shoes 
the next morning, found her frozen form lying on the 
snow, and a fierce wolf, which he had succeeded in 
scaring away, making directly for it. Evidently she 
was a kindly disposed and a heroic woman, and so sad 
a death could not soon in that pioneer neighborhood 
have been forgotten. That more persons did not per- 
ish from exposure and from getting lost on the prai- 
ries or in the woodlands may in part be accounted 
for from the caution exercised not to have women 
and children exposed in the night time. That men 
should be thus exposed was sometimes almost un- 
avoidable, and there were some remarkable escapes. 
Only two deaths from freezing are on record in 
Lake County. The death of David Agnew is else- 
where recorded. In 1842, November 17, William 
Wells, "a very steady, sober, stout, healthy man, 
perished with cold in a severe snowstorm 
while returning home from mill," at Wilming- 
ton in Illinois. When his body was found 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 527 

the evidence appeared that, feeling no doubt 
that he was lost, and becoming, probably, benumbed 
with cold, he unhitched his horses and set them free, 
and instead of endeavoring to protect himself as best 
he could with the means at his disposal in his wagon, 
started out to get warm by walking. But the intense 
cold of that November storm was too much for any 
ordinary endurance. As he was traced out from the 
wagon his footsteps at first were the usual distance 
apart as though he had set out with some vigor and 
hope. But soon the space between the tracks grew 
shorter and shorter, until at last one foot scarcely ad- 
vanced at all beyond the other, and the form above 
them evidently barely moved, and fell at length, with- 
out a struggle, asleep in the snow. Very sad, but 
probably not painful, is such a lone death in a cold 
winter night. 

DEATH BY ACCIDENT. 

In Galena township, covered originally with heavy 
timber, genuine "thick woods, " an incident took place 
which deserves to be placed on record as illustrating 
the unselfish love of a true father for his child. Wil- 
liam Mathews, with a wife and one child, a boy about 
six years of age, came from Missouri and settled in 
this township. He is represented as having been a 
large, powerful man, quiet, unobtrusive, industrious, 
and devotedly attached to his only child. He was cut- 
ting down a large tree one day when a strong wind 
was blowing. Having cut as much as he thought pru- 
dent, he stepped back a few yards to look at the tree, 
his son by his side. As he looked he saw to his sur- 
prise the tree falling rapidly toward them, aided, no 
doubt, by that strong wind. It is supposed that he 



528 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

saw no hope of the escape of both, and in an instant 
with his strong arms he threw the child out of danger 
and the next instant he lay dead, crushed to the 
earth beneath that fallen tree. As there is only con- 
jecture to guide here, it is reasonable to suppose that 
the father determined to make sure of the safety of his 
son first, and so tossed him out of danger, and then 
designed to follow him if he could, but the tree caught 
him before he escaped. 

In Wills township in 1835 were the following set- 
tlers : John Wills, Asa Warner, John Sissany, An- 
drew Shaw, David Stoner, Jesse N. West, Howell 
Huntsman, Mr. Kitchen, Dr. Chapman, Matthias 
Dawson, George Hunt, John Bowell, Asher White, 
Edmund Jackson, Joseph Lykins, John Sutherland, 
Joseph Starrett, William Ingraham, Scott West, John 
Hefner, Jesse Sissany, William Nixon, William West, 
Gabriel Drollinger, Andrew Faller, John Vickory, 
Nimrod West, Jacob Glygean, Jonathan Stoner, John 
Clark, George Belshaw, Samuel Van Dalsen, Martin 
Baker, Jesse Collum, John Golbreath, Benjamin Gol- 
breath, and Mr. Gailion." 

ORIGIN OF SOME NAMES. 

La Porte. General Packard says : "It is related 
that when the act for the incorporation of the county 
was before the legislature a representative from one 
of the older counties arose to inquire what outlandish 
name it was they were about to give the new county, 
and he desired to know what it meant. He was told 
that the word was French for 'door' or 'gate,' and took 
its origin from a natural opening through the timber 
of a grove leading from one part of the prairie to the 
other. 'Well, then/ said he, ' why not call it Door 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 529 

County at once and let these high-flown, aristocratic 
French names alone?' But his advice was not fol- 
lowed, and the county, as subsequently the city, re- 
ceived the beautiful name 'La Porte,' instead of being 
forever heralded to the world as Door County and 
Doorburg." This explanation is certainly good, so 
far as it goes, but if one should ask the further ques- 
tion, Why was a French word taken instead of a word 
meaning door from some other language? and the 
true answer would probably be, Because French ex- 
plorers and traders who were on this region in early 
times called this natural door-way "La Porte." The 
English name, however, was given of Door Prairie, 
and also the name Door Village, both having an 
agreeable sound. 

Hog Prairie in La Porte County derives its name 
from the fact that some native hogs were found there 
supposed to have "been scattered by the Indians," 
whatever that may mean. Hog Creek, of course, took 
its name from the Prairie. 

BROOKSTON. POPULATION 1,600. 

The figures gven above are the present estimated 
population of this town ; but as the number of school 
children is only "about 380," it is not likely the cen- 
sus returns will give more than 1,400, as the real popu- 
lation. Brookston is in the south part of White 
County, about four miles south of Chalmers and 
thirteen miles north of Lafayette. The churches are 
five: Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, 
"Christian," and Universalist. 

The town is noted for enterprise and has the larg- 
est freight business of any town on the Monon line 
between Hammond and Lafayette. "The streets are 



530 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

well built and in good condition. The side walks are 
principally of cement, of which there are about four 
and a half miles. ,, 

Note. As Brookston is south of township 26, and 
so does not appear on the map, it was not named 
among the other towns of White County. 

SOME PECULIAR RECORDS. 

1. Immunity from what is called the common lot. 
Mr. and Mrs. H. Boyd of South East Grove were 
married in 1843, and had three children and thirteen 
grandchildren, and their first death was that of the 
mother and grandmother, Mrs. Boyd, who died in 
May, 1899, nearly eighty-two years of age. For more 
than fifty-five years death made no call at any of their 
homes. 

2. An instance of longevity. Mrs. Betsey R. 
Wason, born in Wilton, New Hampshire, in August, 
1 8 18, a member of the noted Abbot family, was mar- 
ried to the Rev. Hiram Wason in October, 1844, was 
with him in pastoral life at Vevay, Ind., and came with 
him to Lake Prairie, where he became pastor of the 
Presbyterian church, in 1857. She was for many years 
an active and devoted woman in church and Sunday 
school work, a leader in society, having been a teacher 
for many years in her 1 earlier life. Having lived and 
labored together for more than fifty years, Mr. Wason 
died in June, 1898, in his eighty-third year of life, and 
Mrs. Wason died December 15, 1898, eighty years of 
age. 

3. Longevity yet more rare. Peter Surprise, the 
father of Henry Surprise,who is well known in the 
central and southern parts of Lake County, has been 
for several years reported as over one hundred years 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 531 

old. His exact age is not known, but it is considered 
sure that he is as much as one hundred and five years 
of age. 

4. A large household. Julius Demmon was born 
in the East July 24, 1821. He came into Lake County 
about 1838, and in June, 1850, was married to Miss 
Nancy Wilcox, and commenced farming. He began 
life with but little property, but, as a careful and sus- 
cessful farmer, he accumulated, until he became owner 
of about two thousand acres of valuable land not far 
from Merrillville. He had six sons and six daugh- 
ters, all of whom married and settled within some 
three miles of his home. He died in October, 1898, 
and at the burial services there were gathered eighty 
members of two generations, six sons with their 
wives all present, and six daughters with their hus- 
bands, all present, and sixty-one grandchildren, these 
nearly all present, making some eighty-two or three, 
beside the minister and Mrs. Demmon's sister, Mrs. 
Inez Gibson, who stood for a few moments in the 
crowded room for a short service before the body was 
removed for burial. That minister, who had stood 
amid many groups gathered around their dead in In- 
diana and Illinois and Alabama, and amid large house- 
holds, never expects amid such a peculiar group to 
stand again. 



The city of La Porte, in regard to its burial 
ground, called Pine Lake Cemetery, shows that its 
inhabitants have reached a high grade of civilization. 
It is situated about two miles north of the city, "was 
laid out under the State laws in 1835, and contains 
forty-seven acres." The first president of the associa- 
tion was Gilbert Hathaway. President for many 



532 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

years, General Joseph Orr, under whose directions 
the grounds were improved, and these improvements 
with its natural advantages render it "one of the most 
beautiful places in La Porte County." And for those 
who know La Porte County that is saying much. 

PAPERS AND PERIODICALS. 

The names of the papers published in these coun- 
ties will here be given, followed by the names of the 
editors of each, the editors being generally also the 
publishers. 

i. Newton County. At Kentland, The Kentland 
Democrat, Edward Steinback, and Newton County 
Enterprise, H. A. Strohm. At Brook, The Brook Re- 
porter, O. B. Stonehill. At Morocco, The Morocco 
Courier, W. W. Miller. At Goodland, Herald and 
Journal, A. J. Kitt. At Rose Lawn, Review, J. W. 
Crooks. In all six. 

2. Jasper County. At Rensselaer, Democratic 
Sentinel, James W. McEwen, Jasper County Demo- 
crat, F. E. Babcock, Journal. Leslie Clark, Repub- 
lican, George E. Marshall. At Remington, The Rem- 
ington Press, Griffin and McNickol. At Wheatfield, 
Kankakee ValFey Telephone, F. H. Robertson. In 
all six. 

3. White County. At Monticello, Evening Jour- 
nal, C. M. Reynolds; Monticello Herald, J. B. Van- 
buskirk ; White County Democrat, Clarke & Simons ; 
White County National, J. C. Smith. At Wolcott, 
Wolcott Enterprise, E. A. Walker. At Chalmers, 
The Chalmers Ledger, W. A. Watts. At Brookston, 
The Brookston Gazette, George H. Heeley. At Mo- 
non, Monon News, W. D. Harlow. At Idaville, Ida- 
ville Observer, B. E. McCall. In all nine. 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 533 

4. Pulaski County. At Winamac, Democrat- 
Journal, "Established in 1857," bought by the present 
editor, M. H. Ingrim, in 1865, tnen Democrat, con- 
solidated with the Journal in 1884; the Winamac Re- 
publican, "Newton Brothers, Publishers," C. W. Rid- 
dick ; Pulaski Democrat, J. J. Gorrell. At Star City, 
Star City News, C. W. Riddick. At Monterey, Mon- 
terey Sun, Young Bros. At Francesville, Frances- 
ville Tribune, E. D. Knotts. At Medaryville, Adver- 
tiser, H. C. Schott. In all seven. 

5. Starke County. At Knox, Starke County Dem- 
ocrat, S. M. Gorrell ; Starke County Republican, John 
L. Mooman ; The Knox Crescent. At North Judson, 
North Judson News, J. Don Gorrell. In all four. 

6. La Porte County. At La Porte, La Porte Ar- 
gus, H. E. Wadsworth ; La Porte Herald, E. Molloy ; 
La Porte Republican, C. G. Powell; La Porte Bulle- 
tin, Catholic American, Harry B. Darling. Monthly. 
At Michigan City, Michigan City Dispatch, J. B. 
Faulkner; Michigan City News, Robb & Carpenter; 
Frei Lanze, Karl Freitag, Kirchenbote, Antone 
Hudster, Ph. D. Congregational Conference. At 
Wanatah, Wanatah Mirror, L. J. Gross. At West- 
ville, Westville Indicator, Charles E. Martin. In all 
eleven. 

7. Porter County. At Valparaiso, Messenger and 
Evening Messenger, E. Zimmerman; Porter County 
Vidette and Star-Vidette, Welty & Cook; Porter 
County Journal, G. W. Doty; Evening Hoosier, E. 
E. Small ; Independent Forester of America (month- 
ly), Frank H. Klier. At Chesterton, Chesterton Trib- 
une, A. J. Bowser. At Hebron, Hebron News, A. 
W. Barnes. At Kouts, Record, R. E. Helms. In all 
ten. 



534 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

8. Lake County. At Crown Point, Crown Point 
Register, A. A. Bibler (Bibler & McMahan, publish- 
ers), now in Vol. 43; The Lake County Star, J. J. 
Wheeler, in ''twenty-ninth year ;" Crown Point Freie 
Presse, Henry Barck. At Lowell, Lowell Tribune, 
Ragon & Ragon. At Hobart, Hobart Gazette, Smith 
& White ; Hobart Cyclone, Z. E. Irvin. At East Chi- 
cago, East Chicago Globe, Allison P. Brown. At 
Whiting, Whiting News, J. H. Barnett ; Whiting Sun, 
Cecil Ingham. At Hammond, The Hammond Trib- 
une, Percy A. Parry; Lake County News, S. E. 
Swaim; Hammond Daily Republican, Porter B. 
Towle; Deutsche Volks-Zeitung, Wilhelm Schnett. 
In all thirteen. Total number sixty-six. 

A VETERAN JOURNALIST. 

Among the four quite aged men now residing in 
Crown Point is Mr. John Millikan, an aged and now 
retired journalist. He was born in Delaware County, 
Ohio, July 16, 1814, while war with England was still 
going on, and his birthplace was called Fort Morrow, 
a fort built on his grandfather's land. When twelve 
years of age he commenced in the town of Delaware 
to learn the art of printing. In February, 1837, then 
twenty- two years of age, he came to South Bend, and 
as a practical printer he commenced his editorial life 
on a paper called the Free Press. This paper was at 
length bought by Colfax and West, who changed its 
name to the St. Joseph Valley Register, and Editor 
Millikan, in 1845, removed to La Porte, where he 
purchased of Thomas A. Steward the La Porte Whig. 
This name, in 1852, was changed to La Porte Union. 
In 1867 he left the newspaper line and went to Chi- 
cago, but in 1871 returned to Indiana and resumed 



MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS. 535 

at Plymouth editorial work, purchasing there and pub- 
lishing the Plymouth Republican. After six years in 
Plymouth he made one more change and came* to 
Crown Point in 1877. He soon commenced the pub- 
lication of a new and interesting paper called the 
Cosmos, but before long he purchased one-half of the 
Crown Point Register, a paper established in 1857, 
and not very long after he obtained the entire interest 
and control of this paper and published it success- 
fully until 189 1, when already seventy-seven years of 
age, and for a time in rather feeble health, he sold all 
his interest in the Register and retired to a more quiet 
life. He is a good printer, has been a judicious editor, 
and has spent fifty years of a long life in printing 
offices at South Bend and La Porte, at Plymouth and 
in Crown Point. Although now eighty-six years of 
age his step is quick like that of a vigorous man of 
sixty, his hearing is remarkably good, and all his fac- 
ulties seem to be unimpaired. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



SOME STATISTICS. 

The following table will show the increase of our 
counties in population according to the Census Re- 
ports. For 1900, estimated: 

i860. 1870. 1880. 

Lake 9,145 12,339 15*091 

Porter 10,313 13,942 17,227 

La Porte 22,919 27,162 30,985 

Starke 2,195 3^88 5,105 

Pulaski 5,711 7,801 9,851 

White 8,258 10,554 13,795 

Jasper 4,291 6,354 9,464 

Newton 2,360 5,829 8,167 

Total 65,192 87,869 109,685 

1890. 1900. 1900. 

Lake 23,886 38,902 39, 

Porter 18,052 19,540 19, 

La Porte 34,445 39,837 39, 

Starke 7,339 12,000 1 1, 

Pulaski 11,233 14,640 14, 

White 15,671 17787 18, 

Jasper 11,185 ij>974 H> 

Newton 8,803 9f&9 10, 

Total 130,614 i65,349 

Note. In the first column of figures for 1900 the 
population as given, or estimated, is three and one- 
half times the number of the school children, as enum- 



SOME STATISTICS. 53? 



erated in May, 1900, for Lake, Porter and La Porte 
Counties. For the other five counties it is only three 
times the number of the school children. In the 
second column for 1900 the figures are given 
for the number of thousands which it is estimated the 
census of 1900 will give, and a blank space is left for 
filling in the other three figures when the census 
enumeration is published. The accuracy or want of 
accuracy of the estimate will then plainly appear. 
Those who study statistics as to population will take 
an interest in the investigation. It appears from the 
table as given that in 1880 the population of La Porte 
County was more than double the population of Lake 
County. And as now estimated the population of 
Lake is nearly equal to that of La Porte, as the school 
children are in number nearly equal. No one need 
be surprised if the census of 1900 gives a larger popu- 
lation to Lake County than to La Porte. It is quite 
possible that Lake will come up to 40,000. In a few 
months we will know. 

It is interesting to compare with the population 
the number of children of school age, as they are 
enumerated in May of each year by^ the township 
trustees. The following figures are from official 
sources : 

1880. 1890. 1900. 

Lake 5,360 6,753 ">H5 

Porter 5,126 5,907 5,583 

La Porte 11,108 11,551 11,382 

Starke 1,871 2,721 4,000 

Pulaski 3,636 4,201 4,880 

White 4,114 5,182 5,929 

Jasper 3,396 3,965 4,658 

Newton 2,743 2,789 3,223 



538 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

In La Porte County were, in 1880, 63 colored child- 
ren. In Michigan City in 1880, of children, 2,080, in 
La Porte 3,439, in Westville 283. 

It appears from the above figures that the school 
children in Lake County have more than doubled in 
number in the last twenty years. The population also 
of Lake County has much more than doubled. This 
increase has been largely in North township where 
the population in 1880 was 2,540. Hammond had then 
a population of 699, Whiting of 115, and East Chi- 
cago was not. Now the school children of Hammond 
are 3,621, of East Chicago 876, and of Whiting 640. 
Of Crown Point they number 700. Children in Rens- 
selaer 697, of Valparaiso 1,348. The proportion which 
the children of school age bear to the entire popula- 
tion is quite different in the different counties. Let 
us take the year 1880. Three times the number of 
school children in Lake, 16,080, give nearly a thou- 
sand more than the population. In Porter that same 
will give nearly two thousand less. The same in La 
Porte County, 33,324, exceeds the population by two 
and a third thousand. In Starke the same ratio ex- 
ceeds the population by five hundred. In Pulaski the 
excess is a thousand. In White, which is like Porter 
County in regard to children, three times the school 
children, 12,342, will give fourteen hundred less than 
the population. In Jasper an excess appears of seven 
hundred more than the real population. In Newton 
County alone the proportion of one to three nearly 
holds good. Three times 2,743, 8,229, slightly exceeds 
the population, which is 8,167. But taking the year 
1890 as a criterion of the real proportion which the 
school children bear to the entjre population and the 
following results appear: Excess of population in 



SOME STATISTICS. 539 



Lake County, above three times the enumeration, 
3,627. In Porter excess only 331. And in 1880 the 
excess was 1,849. ^ n La P° r te three times the enum- 
eration in 1890 exceeds the population by 208, in- 
stead of, as in 1880, by 2,339. ^ n Starke three times 
the enumeration exceeds the population by 824. In 
Pulaski the same exceeds the population by 1,370. In 
White the same is less than the population by 125. 
In Jasper the excess above the population is 710, and 
in Newton the same is 436 less than the population. 
It appears then that the population is sometimes 
much more and sometimes much less than three times 
the number of the school children. 

In an ordinary, agricultural community three and 
a half times the number of children will usually ex- 
ceed the population. 

The following view of town population, taken from 
the census reports, is also of interest : 

1880. 1890. 

Goodland 628 889 

Kentland 982 918 

Rensselaer 968 1,455 

Monticello 1,193 I »5 l8 

Winamac 835 1,215 

North Judson 165 572 

Knox 316 790 

La Porte 6,195 7,126 

Michigan City 7,366 10,776 

Westville 627 522 

Hebron 715 689 

Valparaiso 4,461 5,090 

Lowell 458 761 

Hobart 600 1,010 

Crown Point 1,708 1,907 

Whiting 1,408 

East Chicago 1,255 

Hammond 699 5,428 



MO northwestern Indiana. 

From all the foregoing it is quite evident that, in 
several particulars, Lake County, in the coming 
century, will take the lead of all these northwestern 
counties; and it becomes its inhabitants, as well as 
those of the other counties, to see that between the 
manufacturing interests of the lake shore towns and 
the agricultural interests of the central and southern 
parts of these shall come no clashing and arise no 
strife. From the fertile lands of the Kankakee Valley, 
and from the rich farms north of the "shore line" and 
south of the large valley, much of the true wealth of 
this region is to be produced ; and well will it be if all 
the thousands in the towns and on the farms will 
work together for the common good. 



CHAPTER XL. 



A WEATHER RECORD. 

Along with its general, its church, and its Sunday 
school history, Lake County has a weather record 
kept with more or less fullness of detail from 1835 up 
to 1900. It may be that other counties in the State 
have such records ; perhaps they have not. This in 
Lake County was commenced by Solon Robinson; 
it has been kept up by members of the Ball family, 
and by Rev. H. Wason of Lake Prairie, until now. 
Whether it will be continued after 1900 ends is un- 
certain. Some extracts from it are here given. The 
full record would fill quite a volume. To some this 
will be of interest. For such it is here : 

"1835. Winter mild until February; then exceed- 
ingly severe weather. 1836. A very wet summer. 
1837. An excessively wet one. 1838. A summer of 
severe drouth and great sickness. The La Porte 
County record is : 'The year 1838 is somewhat 
memorable as the "sickly season." ' Bilious complaints 
were prevalent, and very few escaped. There were 
not enough remaining well properly to care for the 
sick." 

1839. February and March warm and wet. April 
3 gardening commenced. 1840. Winter mild. Tn 
February rains and fog, and, 29, very warm. March 
25 and 26, plowing. 1841. Winter quite mild. 1842. 



542 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

This winter of 1842 and 1843 called the "hard win- 
ter." Many cattle starved to death. Winter com- 
menced. November 17. William Wells of West Creek, 
perished with cold returning home from mill at Wil- 
mington in Illinois. February 18, sleighing good, 
forage for cattle scarce and cattle in many places dy- 
ing. April 1, snow deeper than at any time before 
this winter, from fifteen to eighteen inches in the 
woods. 16 (1843), Alfred Edgerton crossed Cedar 
Lake on the ice. No grass for cattle. May 8. Vege- 
tation but slightly advanced. Cattle barely find suffi- 
cient food. So ended, at last, 'the hard winter.' 

Winter of 1843 an d 1844, mild. 1884, summer very 
wet. Winter of 1844 and 1845 unusually mild. Win- 
ter of 1845 and 1846 less mild but not severe. 1846. 
Summer very dry. Long continued hot weather. Very 
sickly. The summers of 1838 and 1846 are the two 
most noted for sickness in the annals of Lake. Among 
those who died in 1846 were, June 21, Ann Belshaw, 
at the Belshaw Grove, and, October 25, Mrs. Elisa- 
beth Horton, mother of Mrs. J. A. H. Ball, at Cedar 
Lake. Winter of 1846 and 1847 mild. 1848, no spe- 
cial note. 1849, summer wet. High waters in July. 
Cholera prevailing. 1850, 185 1, ordinary years. 1852. 
April 11, no grass, no plowing. May 1, cattle can live. 
1853. Another backward spring. April 26, cattle can 
barely live on the grass. May 1 1. This is the) four- 
teenth day in succession it has rained. The sun has 
not shone twelve -hours during the time. Winter of 
1855 and 1856 snowy and cold. Winter of 1856 and 
1857 severe, with deep, drifting snows. 1857. Crops 
in the summer unusually late. No winter grain, rye 
or wheat, cut till in August, but the yield good. The 
crop of spring wheat was considered the best ever 



A WEATHER RECORD. 543 

raised in the county. Some raised forty bushels on 
an acre. S. Ames of Lake Prairie sowed three acres 
May i, and gathered ninety-six bushels. Corn was 
sold for fifteen cents a bushel. 1858. A wet spring 
and summer. July 8 and 9, mercury 100 degrees. 
September 10, a splendid comet appeared; very bril- 
liant for several weeks. 1859. A cold and backward 
spring. June 5, very white frost; 1 1, frost; July 4, 
light frost; afterwards hot; 12th. mercury 104 degrees 
from 10 a. m. till 4 p. m. ; 13th, 104 degrees; 15th, 
105 degrees at noon; 16th, 102 degrees from 12 m. to 
5 p. m. ; 17th, 100 degrees at 1 p. m. ; 18th, 104 degrees 
at 1 p. m. i860. Cold January. April 27, hard frost; 
June 1, light frost; August 10, 12, 14, light frosts. 
1 86 1. Cool summer. May 2, hard frost ; 4, hard frost ; 
5, tornado, hail and rain ; 30, white frost ; July 2, light 
frost. 1862. March 20 and 21, snow fell for tewnty- 
four hours. April 4, severe hail, stones larger than 
hickory nuts; 21, hard snowstorm; May 20. hard 
frost ; June 9, white frost ; July 19, severe storm. De- 
cember mild. No sleighing. 1863. An open winter. 
Cranes and wild geese occasionally all winter. A cool 
eummmer followed. Frost every month. August 30, 
a hard frost that killed vines and corru; October 30, 
a snowstorm; 31, snow in depth three or four inches. 
1864. January 1, known as the 'cold New Years/ 
Wind and snow. Mercury below zero 20 degrees. 
Intensely severe out in the wind. Mercury below 
zero 2, 18 degrees ; 3 and 4, at zero ; below, 5, 6 de- 
grees ; 7, 20 degrees; 8, 16 degrees; 9, 7 degrees; 11, 
5 degrees. Cold till January 23, then springlike till 
February 16. March 1 to to, robins, blue-birds, larks 
and frogs appeared. In September frosts. In No- 
vember Indian summer. In December mercury, below 



544 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

zero six times, from four to sixteen degrees. 1865. 
June 20, severe storm, hail, wind, and rain. July a 
wet, and mostly cold month. Indian summer again 
in November. 1866. A cold February. Mercury 
below zero on several days. 1867. Generally dry 
through the year, and quite warm. 1868. A steady, 
cold January. March warm and pleasant. July hot 
with frequent showers. Mercury at 94 degrees, 96 de- 
15, 105 degrees. 1869. Trees loaded with ice. Wild 
geese appeared in January; February from 11 to 14, 
frogs, snakes, and larks as in April. The summer 
that followed was called the wet summer. The follow- 
ing is a more full record for January, 1869 : 

"The month just closing has been remarkable, in 
the county of Lake, for its even temperature, its 
amount of sunshine, its mild winds, its general, uni- 
form pleasantness. No snow of any amount since the 
sheet of ice of the first week, and very little mud. Ex- 
cellent wheeling, no rain, no storm, day after day, 
week after week. South wind, southeast wind, west 
wind, north wind, east wind — still pleasant weather. 
It is said that such a January has not been experienced 
for some thirty years. For a winter month it has been 
truly delightful." 

. "Cedar Lake, having been covered with one strong 
sheet of ice, then again all open, can now, in the lat- 
ter part of March, be crossed with loaded teams. Quite 
an unusual occurrence." 

The following is another record: "During the 
year 1867 there was in our county one cloudless day, 
September 28th. On the 27th a speck of cloud was 
visible before sunrise, on the 29th one was visible 
after sunset. During 1868 no cloudless day was ob- 
served by a close observer. At Rochester, New York, 



A WEATHER RECORD. 545 

some years ago, eighteen such days were observed in 
one year, and thirteen in another. There are few such 
days at the south end of Lake Michigan ; yet there are 
many delightful ones, the sky as deeply blue as that 
over Mount Auburn, and fleecy clouds as beautiful and 
lovely as float anywhere." 

1870. January 12, wild geese appeared; mercury 
45 degrees. May, July, and August, warm and dry 
months. October a fine month. Says a farmer, "Our 
best corn year." 1871. In January of this year were 
those remarkable days, commencing with rain and 
frost, and continuing so changeless, that gave us the 
most magnificent ice views, so far as records show, 
ever witnessed in this latitude. Commencing Janu- 
ary 14, the sheet of ice continued over everything for 
two weeks. Immense damage was done to forest trees. 
Fruit trees were broken very much, but the injury to 
them did not prove to be serious. The winter scenery 
during those two weeks was indescribably grand. All 
the boughs of all vegetation were covered with ice that 
weighed the evergreens and smaller trees almost to 
the earth, and when the sun shone the brilliant crys- 
tals everywhere almost dazzled the eyes of the 
beholder. One evening, during those two weeks, 
the rays of the setting sun, with the redness of a glow- 
ing summer brightness, shone upon the tree-tops, and 
they flashed in that red light as though hung all over 
with myriads of rubies. Such a scene of resplendent 
beauty none here ever saw before. The temperature 
day after day was mild ; very little wind ; considerable 
sunshine ; but the whole world around seemed bound 
in unyielding fetters of ice. It was like living in a 
fairy land, or in arctic regions without the cold and the 
darkness. Existence itself, amid such beauty, was a 



546 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

great delight. But rare elements of the magnificent 
in nature seemed to be combined, when at length mo- 
tion again commenced in the outer world. Then at 
midday, in the usually silent winter groves, the con- 
tinuous roar of the ponderous, falling crystal masses, 
the breaking oi loaded boughs as the wind began to 
rise and try their strength, the danger to which one 
was constantly exposed, were sufficient to rouse into 
excitement the dullest nature. 

Between Crown Point and Cedar Lake the road 
was rendered impassable for days by an icy blockade ; 
all our woods still show the marks of the giant power 
that was laid upon them ; the like in our history was 
never known before. The ice sheet extended from 
Southern Michigan in a southwesterly direction into 
Illinois ; its width being some twenty or thirty miles, 
and Crown Point lay near the center of its course. 
At Chicago* snow fell to quite a depth instead of the 
rain which here froze at the surface of the earth. 

In June the locusts came in immense swarms, 
keeping themselves mostly upon the forest trees. 
They were especially numerous in the woods north of 
Lowell ; south and southwest of Crown Point ; and in 
the eastern portion of the county. These locusts 
stung the timber, but no serious results followed. 

In October strong winds prevailed. The summer 
was very dry, and unusual fires raged along the marsh 
and in the islands of timber. It seemed as though 
what the ice and the locusts had left unharmed, the 
fires were commissioned to destroy. The October 
fires of 1871, in and out of Lake, will long be remem- 
bered. 

Although a very dry season,and many wells failed, 
and cattle suffered severely from thirst, yet the corn 



A WEATHER RECORD. 547 

crop was good, the oat crop was good, and grass was 
abundant. 

1872. The winter commencced with no heavy fall 
rains and no mud. In January there came quite a fall 
of snow and a few cold days, but on the whole the win- 
ter was mild. Spring came, yet very little rain, no 
mud, no bad roads. Showers in the summer; very 
little rain. Vegetation grows, but cattle suffer, wells 
dry up, and it seems as though the fountains in the 
earth would fail. Since 1869 we have almost forgotten 
what a rain storm is or a muddy road. The summer 
of 1872 has proved an unusually abundant fruit sea- 
son. The corn crop has been abundant, the oat crop 
fair, and the grass crop good. A late and pleasant 
autumn with but little rain and no mud. No bad 
roads since the spring of 1870. 

December of 1872 cold; December 23, the mercury 
went to 30 degrees below zero at Crown Point. On 
Lake Prairie, it was recorded by Rev. H. Wason, Dec. 
24, in the morning, 26 degrees below zero. 1873. 
January 29, below zero 24 degrees; March 9, wild 
geese ; 10, bluebirds ; 17, plowing began, July 4. The 
greatest fall of water for one hour and a quarter ever 
known in Crown Point ; good boating on some of the 
streets. 1874. A quite mild winter, followed in Lake 
County by a dry summer ; crops suffered from drought 
and bugs. There is a record of a severe storm of hail 
and wind that swept over Galena township in La Porte 
County August 15, 1874. What the weather had 
previously been is not mentioned, but probably hot 
and dry. Of the storm and its effects it is said : 
"Thousands of fruit and forest trees were uprooted or 
broken, fences were blown down, barns were demol- 
ished, and dwellings unroofed. The thunder kept up 



548 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

one continuous roar, heard above the rushing of the 
mighty winds and the crash of falling timber. The 
lightning was one ceaseless blaze. Hail as large as 
pigeon's eggs came down in sheets and cut the stand- 
ing corn in pieces. It commenced at about five 
o'clock in the morning, and never, since the first set- 
tlement of Galena, had such a storm, effecting such im- 
mense loss, visited the township." 

1875. ^ n January and Feburary mercury part of 
the time below zero. July a cold wet month. Hay 
and grain damaged by rain and wind. December 
muddy. 1876. January and February mild and open 
weather; wild geese in January; March wet; very 
muddy; almost impossible to travel. December, 
good sleighing most of the month. 1877. Sleigh- 
ing continued, making six weeks of unusually good 
going. February was pleasant; no rain or snow, 
roads dry and dusty; spring birds singing. In De- 
cember plowing. 1878. First four months warm ; 
April 20, peach, cherry, plum, crab and some apple 
trees in blossom ; July, very warm ; last half of Decem- 
ber good sleighing; snow about a foot deep. 1879. 
Snow nearly gone last of January ; again six weeks of 
good sleighing; March 1, robins ; the year peculiar for 
its extremes of cold and heat, of wet and dry. 1880. 
January and February again warm ; birds abundant in 
February; March muddy; May wet; June very wet; 
crops fair, prices good. 1881. January mild, dry for 
the last ten weeks ; in February freshets ; creeks high ; 
October, November, and December very wet, also 
warm. This year noted for extremes. Very dry and 
very wet, very cold and very warm. 1882. January, 
Feburary, and March and part of April, mild and even 
warm ; May cold and wet ; June warm and wet ; July 



A WEATHER RECORD. 549 

cool; December mild; roads generally good. 1883. 
January very cold ; February, a wintry month ; March 

I, spring birds ; 16, about noon, a terrible wind from 
the north ; a pleasant dry month ; roads dry as sum- 
mer; May rather cold; June, cool; August, cool; 
October, cold and wet ; November mild and wet ; De- 
cember 5th was a remarkably pleasant day, like a May 
day. "Pleasant, mild weather continued with those 
glorious displays of red light on the western sky after 
sunset and on the eastern sky before sunrise, which 
baffled the knowledge of the men of science. For 
fourteen days in December farmers were busy plowing, 
and then winter commenced. The sleighing was quite 
good. On Saturday morning, January 5, 1884, the 
mercury was below zero 28, 30, and some reported 32 
degrees, being the coldest on record at Crown Point. 
The Crown Point record continues : January 30. 
Up to this date sleighing ; now a January thaw ; cold 
weather soon returned; on Tuesday, Feburary 19, a 
blizzard came down from Dakota; the mercury went 
some degrees below zero in March; from December 
15, till March 11, almost continuous sleighing; March 

II, yesterday sleighing; this afternoon streets all 
mud; March 21, the air is soft and mild, almost like 
the atmosphere in a green house; some robins have 
come. "Another record: 1884. January again a 
very cold month ; 5, mercury 27 degrees below zero at 
night ; February not very cold, but water high. Thus 
far it seems, according to two records, that the cold- 
est mornings have been December 24, 1872, mercury 
26 degrees to 30 degrees below zero, and January 5, 
1884, from 27 degrees to 32 degrees below zero. May 
June, and July good months for the growth of crops ; 
November quite a mild month. Indian summer 



550 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

from November 19 to 23. 1885. January and 
February cold, the "winter unusually cold and 
abounding with snow; never since we have had 
railroads were such snow blockades known. One 
train of passenger cars remained at Crown Point from 
Sunday evening till Thursday afternoon, and on the 
Air Line Louisville road [passing through Lowell] 
the snow blockade was still more irresistible. The 
long and deep snow cuts on most of our roads looked 
like visions of the frigid zone. The constant succes- 
sion of snow hillocks, or the pitching down and go- 
ing up, on the sleigh road leading eastward from 
Crown Point on the only open road, was something 
never experienced here before. It was like driving 
over high and narrow frozen waves. To enjoy sleigh- 
riding over such a road was quite impossible. At 
times the mercury went thirty and thirty-two [de- 
grees] below zero, on a Fahrenheit thermometer, the 
cold being again equal to that severe cold of Decem- 
ber, 1872, and of January, 1884." 

In the summer that followed lightning struck more 
frequently than usual near dwelling houses, and on 
one Sunday afternoon instantly killed Alexander Bur- 
hans, who was standing in his dooryard watching the 
storm cloud. One narrow sweep of wind passed 
across Eagle Creek making a total wreck of the large 
barn of E. W. Dinwiddie. It stood on open prairie in 
a very exposed situation. 

1886. The winter of this year ended on Tuesday, 
April 6, with a severe wind and snow storm, and on 
Tuesday, April 13, summer heat, 76 degrees, began. 
1887. From March to May unusually dry; wild straw- 
berries ripe May 21, garden berries May 28. "Sunday, 
July 17, was noted for heat. For several days the 



A WEATHER RECORD. 55l 

mercury had indicated more than blood heat. Sun- 
day it was said to be in the shade from 101 degrees to 
104 degrees F. The heat in the air seemed like heat 
from a furnace. It was natural to think we had not 
felt such heat before. But July, 1859, was very 
hot." One extract more for this year. "Mon- 
day afternoon, November 21, 1887, was remarkable. 
The Saturday before a fierce storm had raged, a storm 
of wind and snow. The snow still lay on the ground 
Monday, but the atmosphere was that of Indian sum- 
mer, the sky smoky, the sun at three o'clock as red al- 
most as blood. Very little wind; mercury 38 degrees 
F. ; at four o'clock the sun was hidden by the smoke ; 
winter on the ground, Indian summer in the atmos- 
phere." 

1888. One extract: September 8. From report 
at Old Settlers' Association. "A few minutes before 
6 o'clock last evening, with the sun of course near the 
horizon, a very glorious view was seen for a moment 
in the western sky as that sun, ever a glorious object 
on which to look, shone through and upon a mass of 
mountain-like clouds, gilding the glowing edges for a 
few seconds of two lofty summits that looked like 
mountain peaks, and then shining full through the 
huge mass of vapor, as though determined still to 
promise a sunny and pleasant morrow. After the dis- 
appearance of the sunshine a light shower came, and 
none need wish for a pleasanter September morning 
than was this morning of our thirteenth annual gath- 
ering, the close of fifty-four years of our occupancy of 
this soil of Lake." Twelve days of delightful weather 
in December. Much like December in 1883. Roads 
perfect, without dust or mud; no frost in the 
ground to prevent plowing for these twelve days. 



552 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

1889. January 25. "So far the winter has been 
remarkable; so little rain and mud, so much warm 
sunshine through November, December, and Jan- 
uary." February 6, "Wednesday morning, zero 
weather; ice gathering this week." "March 5, 
geese and ducks along the Kankakee Marsh; the 
winter, mild and dry as it has been, seems to be over ; 
robins and blue-birds are reported; everything indi- 
cates an early spring." And spring did come early. 
Flowers in abundance in the woods by the middle of 
April ; strawberries in blossom and some corn planted 
in April. Summer heat came in May; June quite a 
wet month ; one strong wind east of Plum Grove blew 
down a barn belonging to J. Pearce ; July wet month ; 
August dry; the fall pleasant; December warm. It 
was said that winter wheat grew more in December 
than it had done in October. Christmas dry, warm ; 
snakes were seen. 1890. The first part of January 
mild; children caught tad-poles and minnows; Tues- 
day, 21, came an intensely cold, west wind; 22, mer- 
cury 26 degrees below zero; icemen hoping for their 
harvest ; 24, ice seven and a half inches thick ; 25, ice- 
men expected to begin work but warmth and mud re- 
turned; Feburary 10, mud in abundance; March 1, 
mercury about zero ; some ice from four to six inches 
thick put up the first week~in March ; April 23, straw- 
berry blossoms opening; 24, dandelions in blossom. 
The last two weeks of June unusually hot; June 13, a 
severe thunder storm in the evening; some houses 
struck by the lightning ; the hay barn at Shelby struck 
by the lightning and burned. October 10, some katy- 
dids still alive and "chirping;" November an unusually 
delightful month ; December was remarkable; the 
roads during the most of the month smooth, hard, dry, 



A WEATHER RECORD. 553 

like summer roads without much dust; December 31, 
an April-like rain came, gentle, warm, delightful. 
1891. Thursday, January 1, still warm, showers, sun- 
shine, and a rainbow. The month continued unusu- 
ally mild ; good roads most of the month. February 
1, cloudy, damp, mild. March, a cold, wet month; 
roads very muddy. For the first third of April roads 
almost impassable ; very little sunshine for three weeks 
in March and April. After such a mild and open win- 
ter the usual spring time seemed very wintry. July 
was said to be the coolest that had been experienced 
for twenty years. September very warm. The sea- 
son all through has been fruitful. Fertility, rather 
unusual fertility, has been the characteristic this year 
in the vegetable world. All crops good. Apples 
abundant. Potatoes abundant. From December 2 
till Christmas farmers were plowing. 1892. Three 
weeks of quite good ice weather in January. On Jan- 
uary 10, and 15, 10 degrees below zero. In February 
a thaw; roads muddy; February 5, Friday evening, 
Venus and Jupiter appeared in a clear sky at Crown 
Point almost in a right line with the earth. It was a 
beautiful sight. They seemed almost to touch each 
other. They were last in conjunction in July, 1859. 
A few evenings before there had also been a beautiful 
sight of which one in a Boston paper wrote: 'The 
close approach of the new moon and the two bright 
planets, Venus and Jupiter on Jan. 31st and Feb. 1st 
was one of the most brilliant astronomical sights in 
the life of the present generation." February 13, Sat- 
urday evening, there was seen a magnificent dis- 
play of the northern light or Aurora Borealis. It 
was remarkable for its general rich, red color, 
and for its evenness of display. Some of the 



554 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

streamers were very bright. Monday 13, zero; 
from the 16, onward, mild, roads muddy; wild geese 
and ducks came 22 and 23 ; March spring weather with 
blue-birds and robins and larks. April cool, but flow- 
ers in the woods by the 15. The months of May and 
June very wet. The Little Calumet was a mile wide 
or more between Highland and Hessville. No record 
of such high water in June before. July a dry month. 
For productiveness the season in marked contrast 
with the last. The fruit crop almost a failure. Ap- 
ples seldom so scarce. Potatoes and the corn crop 
poor. Hay a good crop. Planting time in the spring 
was very late. The autumn of this year very pleasant. 
December 26, mercury 8 degrees to 12 degrees below 
zero. 1893. January cold, snow, much zero weather. 
A good ice harvest ; snow in the woods, Jan. 24, a foot 
deep; 15, 4 degrees below zero at noon. February, 
still cold; 7, 10 degrees below zero; 8, roads very icy; 
sleighing quite good till Feb. 25 ; a good winter for 
sleighing, an icy crust for weeks under the snow and 
few drifts. March variable, cold, snow, rain, mud. 
April 5, roads dusty ; 7, mercury above summer heat ; 
vegetation growing rapidly; 17, woods abound in wild 
flowers wet weather. May J, quite pleasant; World's 
Fair opened; 5^ ground very wet; 10, summer heat 
again ; 11, a heavy rain fall ; 15, dandelions in blossom ; 
cherry and pear blossoms opening. June 10, a heavy 
rain fall ; the last general rain for nine weeks ; mer- 
cury some of these days above 100 degrees, but the 
nights generally cool, northerly winds prevailing. 
September 12, at noon, showers came again. (The 
summer of 1893, as was tnat °^ J 89 2 > characterized by 
freedom from severe storms ; , excellent seasons for 
building.) December 1, 5 degrees below zero; 4, at 



A WEATHER RECORD. 555 

5 a. m. on West Creek 18 degrees below zero ; at 7, 
10 degrees below at Lowell; at Crown Point 5 degrees 
below after sunrise. December 3, snow a foot in 
depth; the weather quite variable; 23-27 pleasant, 
mild ; 28, farmers plowing ; 29, a sail boat out on the 
lake after the ice hadHbeen seven inches. 1894. Jan- 
uary 1, a spring-like morning; plowing continued till 
Jan. 7; 17, again plowing; roads good; 25, mercury 
10 degrees below zero; another short ice harvest. 
February 8, heavy fog, rain, mud; 12, a snowstorm, 
wind northeast- quite a blizzard; at noon 24 degrees; 
snow very penetrating; sifting in everywhere; drift- 
ing badly ; so severe the storm that of 73 pupils in the 
high school room at Crown Point only about 20 met 
the teacher in the afternoon; the wind very strong; at 
sunset the mercury still about 24 degrees ; had the 
temperature been zero the storm would have been 
fearful ; 13, at. noon 32 degrees ; the wind has ceased, 
the storm is over, drifts very deep, railroads blockad- 
ed ; 17, a strong south wind ; the snow all turning into 
water ^27, at noon 47 degrees ; a caterpillar out on the 
sidewalk. March and April, mild ; generally pleasant ; 
April 16, spring flowers in abundance vegetation for- 
ward; May vegetation growing rapidly; 18, at noon a 
cold wind storm came from the north; the Chicago 
papers said, a hurricane swept down upon that city 
from Manitoba; here the storm lasted four days.; no 
such storm for several years; it swept over a large 
area of country in the far north giving sleighing. June 
warm and showery. July hot, rather dry. August 
dry; 11, rain; again dry, with a remarkably smoky 
atmosphere for nine days, the sun being visible 
but not shining, till September 3, when in five 
minutes the deep dust turned to mud as the wel- 



556 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

come rain came; September warm; with some 
smoky days. October 14, a heavy frost; 18, Mars 
is now the attractive planet in the sky; it is 
in opposition to the sun, nearly, is high up at mid- 
night, distant only 40,000,000 miles ; not such another 
favorable view to be had till 1906; the frost did not kill 
flowers; 20, bees working as though the month was 
May. November 5, robins remaining and flowers still 
bright; 7, some snow. December 12, men plowing 
and ditching ; pleasant till 27, then snow ; 28, 5 degrees 
below zero. 1895. January at first mild, but ended 
with cold days, deep snow drifts, mercury several times 
below zero. February generally cold, snow and drifts ; 
March ordinarily pleasant; 25, robins and larks re- 
ported ; 29, a hot day, mercury up to 82 degrees. April 
14, flowers ; quite a little grass in the marshes. May 
1, at noon 84 degrees; a glorious May-day; a remark- 
able season for the growth of vegetation; 21, a quite 
heavy frost ; potatoe vines in some gardens killed into 
the very ground; they had grown rapidly and were 
tender. June hot, some showers. July 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 
smoky air ; 22, 23, 24, smoky ; some showers few sul- 
try nights all summer; a quite dry spring; no severe 
storms in the summer; this makes three successive, 
quite dry, and, for out-of-door work and enjoyment, 
very pleasant summers. 

Thus far, our printed record has been followed ; and 
for the last ten years the reports made to the Old Set- 
tlers' Association as published in pamphlet form have 
been followed, extracts having been freely made. The 
reports for the next five years are not yet published. 

The report for the next year gives for this August 
of 1895 showers across the north and central parts of 
the county, but all the south part dry and dusty till 



A WEATHER RECORD. 557 



the 24tfi. August 26, a quite general rain; showers 
continued. September 7, the air cool in the groves, 
changing temperature, cool and then hot. September 
18, last night one of the hottest of the summer ; on the 
whole September a hot or warm month; Saturday, 
September 21st, said to have been in New York their 
hottest day, the hottest for the time of year recorded 
by the Weather Bureau ; at 2 p. m. in New York 96 
degrees ; at Rochester 92 degrees ; at Springfield in 
Massachusetts 103 degrees ; at Brattleboro, Vt., 105 
degrees; the hottest September in Iowa for twenty 
years; there have now been, in 1895, five hot months, 
unusually hot for Indiana. No killing frost on Pros- 
pect Ridge in Crown Point till October 9th. Flowers 
bright, late beans in blossom until then. October 22, 
wild geese passed over Crown Point going south ; 
robins not all gone; 31, about five a. m. an earthquake 
shock felt at Crown Point ; at 9, 40 degrees ; at 3 p. m. 
44 degrees. A strange sensation produced by the 
cloudy air this afternoon, as though some convulsion 
in nature had happened or would happen. The result, 
perhaps, of the earthquake. In November changes. 
Indian summer and Squaw Winter, snow, ice, sleigh- 
ing, and thaws; winter fully commenced November 
19th. In 1842 it commenced November 17th. De- 
cember not very cold, but part of the month very wet ; 
18, rain the night before; 19, a rainy night; 20, not 
such a fall of water for years ; wet weather continued ; 
24, 44 degrees; pansies in blossom; 25, another very 
green Christmas ; the grass is like spring. 

1896. January 4, 10 degrees below. Ice formed. 
10. For a few days ice, seven inches in thickness, 
going into the ice houses. Latter part of the month 
quite mild. 



558 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

February mild till 17. Then zero. 18. Black snow 
fell at Crown Point; 19, 24 degrees below zero; 20, 
10 degrees below; 21, 4 degrees below. Rest of 
the month mild. March, rather cold; 13, zero. 
April, quite mild, latter part hot. May, warm; 
11, about summer heat; heat continued; 16, a 
thunder storm in the afternoon ; between 8 and 9 
o'clock a strong wind*" struck Crown Point, breaking 
down many trees, shade trees, fruit trees, and ever- 
greens ; 21, some strawberries ripe; 22, roses quite 
abundant ; at 5 a. m. 62 degrees ; 26, strawberries 
abundant and cheap; a wet May; quite a wet June; 
vegetation very forward. July 1, Currants nearly 
gone ; considerable corn five feet high ; new potatoes 
quite plenty ; about two weeks earlier than in ordinary 
seasons ; July 5, some peaches about ripe ; blackberries 
in the gardens ripening; July 14, at 8:30, 84 degrees; 
9 130, 88 degrees ; 3 p. m. 98 degrees ; 3 130, 94 degrees ; 
July 15, at 5, 80 degrees ; at 7, 86 degrees ; at noon 76 
degrees ; 1 ."30, 72 degrees ; at 7, 66 degrees : July 16", 
at 5, 60 degrees ; at noon, 70 degrees ; it seems from 
the papers that a fearful storm passed over Lake 
Michigan night before last; at Grand Haven, Michi- 
gan, the worst storm they ever experienced ; no won- 
der the temperature here fell so much July 15th; July 
19, a gentle, steady rain all day; much water fell; July 
24, wet weather ; a very wet week for July. The music 
or noise of the katydids began very early, about the 
middle of July. August quite hot and wet ; August 
6, probably hottest day of the summer ; mercury up to 
blood heat ; carpenters quit work ; one man sun-struck 
and died; August 11, a heavy cloud, visible at Crown 
Point, swept across Lake Michigan about 7 p. m. ; 
the rain reached Crown Point about nine o'clock ; al- 



A WEATHER RECORD. 559 

most incessant lightning for two hours, extending, ap- 
parently, from the lake southward ; heavy showers in 
the night; constant lightning; August 22, at 3 this 
morning quite a heavy thunder storm from the south 
struck Crown Point; lasted only about twenty min- 
utes ; the wind broke down some trees ; this was in 
Chicago the most severe storm of the season. Sep- 
tember was quite a pleasant, rather wet month ; 6, 
some cherry trees in quite full blossom ; 26, Bean vines 
not yet hurt by frost on Prospect Ridge. October 
mild and pleasant; 18, at 7 o'clock 30 degrees 
Feriessie; 29, robins seen near Lowell. In No- 
vember some snow, some rain, some mud, 
some very pleasant days ; 8, a robin seen. December 
a mild month. 1897. January opened with mild 
weather, and clouds and rain; mild till the 24th; 24, 
below zero 10 degrees ; 25, 20 degrees ; 26, 20 degrees ; 
2 7> 3 degrees ; 28, 4 degrees ; 29, 1 degree, and 30, 2 
degrees above zero ; a cold week. February and 
March mild with many pleasant, sunny days. April 
mild with some rain and some quite windy days. May 
rather cool, with some warm, delightful days ; 4, dan- 
delion in blossom; 5, strawberry blossoms opening; 
7-8, warm, sunny ; mercury 80 degrees and 86 degrees. 
May was quite varied, cool, warm, showers; 31, a 
frost; fruit blossoms and some young fruit killed. 
June 5, summer heat; some strawberries ripe; 12, at 1 
p. m., 88 degrees; at sunset, 76 degrees; 13, at 1 115, 
96 degrees; sunset, j6 degrees; 14, at 10, 86 degrees; 
at 3, 95 degrees ; at sunset, 80 degrees ; 15, at noon, 94 
degrees; at 3, 94 degrees; 16, thunder showers, much 
lightning, heavy thunder, and a rainy night followed ; 
hot weather and showers continued, with some very 
hot nights. July a hot month ; mercury many times 



560 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

96 degrees ; 98 degrees ; 99 degrees, and reached 100 
degrees and 102 'degrees ; showers light. 

A HOT DAY. 

Thursday, July 8, 1897, if not the hottest of our 
days, has ce'rtainly been very hot. The thermometer 
has been noticed at various hours and this is the re- 
cord : At 5 130, 74 degrees ; at 6 130, 79 degrees ; at 7, 
82 degrees ; at 9 115, 92 degrees ; at 10 130, 94 degrees ; 
at II, 96 degrees; at 11 120, 97 degrees; at 11 130, 98 
degrees, blood heat; at 12, 99 degrees; at 12:30, 100 
degrees; at 1, 102 degrees; at 3, 97 degrees; at 5:30, 
94 degrees ; at 6, 94 "degrees ; at 7, 88 degrees ; at 8, 86 
degrees. And now, at 9 o'clock, it is still 84 degrees. 
Our record is that July 16, 1859, the mercury from 
noon till 5 p. an. was 102 degrees, and July 12th, 104 
degrees from 10 a. m. to 4 p. m. July 4th of that year 
there was a light frost, but from the 12th to the 18th 
very hot. 

First half of August hot ; 18, a light frost in low 
places; Wednesday, August 25, Anniversary or Old 
Settlers' Day; a delightful day, cool, yet comfortable-, 
sun bright and warm, but not very hot. September 
hot, 94 degrees, 96 degrees ; 98 degrees ; 13 at 6 
o'clock, 71 degrees ; everything very dry ; 14, at noon, 
98 degrees ; hot nights ; 16, some rain ; 18, frost in low 
places. October warm and rather dry; 31, no frost 
on higher parts of Crown Point ; flowers bright. No- 
vember 3, some frost ; 6, 32 degrees ; rains followed ; 
11, some snow; 12, ground frozen; 24 degrees; 23, 
some snow. December quite mild and pleasant. 
1898. January quite a mild and pleasant month ; 22, 
snow; 23, heavy drifts; 25, rain and sleet. February 
1, 5 degrees below zero; 3, 2 degrees below; rest of 



A WEATHER RECORD. 561 

the month quite mild. March mild ; the winter quite 
mild or open ; two short seasons of ice gathering, ten 
and fourteen inches thick, clear good ice. April pleas- 
ant ; rather cool ;lruit blossoms opening the last of the 
month, cherry and peach and others. May sunshine 
and showers. June also a growing month, showers 
and some rain; 24, at noon, 94 degrees; 30, at noon 
96 degrees. July 1, 2, early in the morning, 74 de- 
grees ; j6 degrees ; noon, 95 degrees ; dry ; 24, noon, 
101 degrees; some rain. August 15, 16, rains, strong 
wind, generally pleasant month, warm, quite even tem- 
perature. September warm, rather wet. October 
warm with some wet days and nights ; 2J, 28 degrees ; 
some ice. November mild, coldest mornings, II, 26 de- 
grees ; 12, 28 degrees ; 16, 28 degrees ; 22, 20 degrees ; 
2$, 10 degrees; 24, 10 degrees; 26, zero. December 

8, 9, 10. nearly zero; 13, 14, zero; 22, 24, snow; 29, 44 
degrees, noon, 50 degrees; snow nearly gone; 31, 10 
degrees ; light snow fell. 1899. January quite mild 
till latter part of the month ; 4, 50 degrees, rain ; 13, 42 
degrees, some rain ; 23, 38 degrees ; 27, zero ; Sunday, 
January 29, one of our cold days ; at 7 o'clock 10 de- 
grees below zero ; at 10 o'clock, zero ; at noon, 4 de- 
grees ; at 3 o'clock, 6 degrees, and then it went down ; 
it wat a bright, sunny day and not much wind ; Mon- 
day, 30, very cold ; at 7, 4 degrees below ; at 7 130, 2 
degrees below; at 8:30, zero; at 10:30, 1 degree; at 
noon 2 degrees; at 3 o'clock, 3 degrees ; the highest in 
the day; about zero all day; January 30, zero; 31, 8 
degrees below zero. February cold ; 7, 4 degrees be- 
low; 8, 12 degrees below; at noon, 10 degrees below ; 

9, 22 degrees below; noon, 10 degrees below; 10, 20 
degrees below; noon, 6 below; II, 4 degrees below, 
and at noon 4 degrees below; a cold day; 12, 15 de- 



562 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

grees below; 13, 8 degrees below; 14, 10 degrees; 18, 

35 degrees, shower; noon, 40 degrees; 20, 21, show- 
ers; 22, 23, snow, 38 degrees; 25, rain. March, more 
mild, some snow, some clouds some sunshine ; 7, 4 de- 
grees ; 11, 50 degrees; 25, 40 degrees; 30, 31, snow, 
28 degrees. April, 13, 48 degrees ; 12 130, JJ degrees ; 
17, strong wind; 23, 56 degrees; 1 p. m., 79 degrees; 
30 flowers in the woocls, fruit trees full of blossoms. 
May, 2, 3, 4, showers ; 7, rain ; 8, wet ; 22, in the night 
a heavy storm. Latter part of May wet. June pleas- 
ant; a good amount of sunshine. July and August 
pleasant months. September 5 very hot, 98 degrees ; 
7, at 11 o'clock, 98 degrees; at noon, 100 degrees; at 
night rain; 17, 70 degrees; rain followed; 26, light 
frost. October quite warm, several Indian summer 
days; 29, 36; heavy frost. November, mild; 
some Indian summer days; 22, 54 degrees; 
30, 40 degrees. December mostly mild; 12, 
32 degrees, light snow ; 29, 30, zero early; 31, 4 
degrees; noon, 16 degrees; some good ice harvesting. 
1900. January and February were pleasant winter 
months. January 29, zero; 31, 4 degrees below zero; 
in some localities 6 degrees below. February 1, 6 de- 
grees and 8 degrees below, light snow falls and some 
rain; 24, zero at 9 a. m., 4 degrees below at night; 
25, about zero; 2y, snow commenced falling at 
night. Snowfall continued all day; quite mild; 
a pleasant snow, but a heavy snowfall; about six- 
teen inches in depth, but drifted. March 1, 
28 degrees ; 5, 18 degrees, sleet falling all day, but not 
very rapidly ; only a few inches ; 6, 34 degrees ; after- 
noon snowing again ; the short thaw of March 4, 

36 degrees, now over. The ice harvests for this past 
winter were three. The first commenced about the last 



A WEATHER RECORD. 563 

of December, the second the middle of January, the 
third the middle of February. Each lasted from one 
to two weeks. The ice was clear and nice, from eight 
to twelve inches in thickness. April 6, noon, summer 
heat ; at 3 o'clock, 80 degrees ; 9, 10, 11, cool ; 12, snow 
two or three inches ; 26, wild flowers ; 28, again 80 de- 
grees. May 2, children barefooted; in general a warm 
and growing month ; 27, at noon, 90 degrees. June, 
showers or rain quite frequent. Strawberries ripe 
June 2 ; raspberries June 2J, 28, 29, hot ; 30, cool 
wind all day ; strawberries gone. July 2, rain at night ; 
3, a very hot night ; 4, 5, 6, 80 degrees in the morning ; 
7, j6 degrees, and a shower at night; 11, very cool 
wind in afternoon; 15, rain in the night; 16, showers; 
17, showers; ig, 20, 70 degrees in the morning; 21, 56 
degrees ; a growing, pleasant summer. Monday, July 
16, the hay barn of John Pearce struck by lightning 
and burned ; also H. Boyd's hay stack. 



CONCLUSION. 



When this year which we call 1900 closes, then 
will end the Nineteenth century of the Christian Era. 
That it has been over all the world the civilized and 
the savage world, a remarkable century for changes, 
for inventions, for discoveries, for rapid movement 
among the world's forces, all are well aware. 

When it commenced Northwestern Indiana, hav- 
ing passed in name and form from the French to the 
British, and from the British to the Americans, had 
no proper owners but Indians, no inhabitants but In- 
dians and the wild denizens of forest and prairie, with 
possibly an Indian trader, and so for some thirty 
years continued ; and now, as the century is hastening 
rapidly to its close, about seventy years having passed 
since the smoke first began to mount upwards from 
the stick chimneys of a few log cabins, we have farms 
and orchards and immense numbers of domestic ani- 
mals ; workshops and factories ; villages and towns and 
cities ; gravel and macadam roads ; railroads and tele- 
phones and electric lights and electric railways ; 
schools and churches and some majestic stone court 
houses ; intelligent, prosperous farmers, and many cul- 
tivated and wealthy citizens. We have increased from 
the first log cabins scattered here and there in the 
woodlands to about one hundred villages and towns 
and cities, with nearly eight hundred and forty school 



CONCLUSION. 565 



houses and about two hundred and twenty-five 
churches. 

It is true that there is another side, and some 
dark, very dark spots in the full picture. There are 
jails and a penitentiary, and many haunts of evil, and 
some homes of poverty and want. But while we have 
some beer-factories and hundreds, possibly thousands 
of saloons, and, it may be, some dens of infamy, yet it 
is sadly, fearfully true that these are the blots as yet 
remaining over all Christendom, thickest and blackest 
in the largest cities, attesting well the claim that hu- 
manity is "tainted with leprosy within," and showing 
full well that earth's millennium age has not yet come. 
But the fiercer the conflict grows, "irrepressible" in- 
deed, between good and evil, the further, it is evident, 
we have advanced in achieving a Christian civilization. 
Thousands of prosperous, peaceful, Christian homes, 
in towns and on fertile farms, show that the seventy 
years of effort here have not been in vain. If there are 
some things much worse than anything known in the 
wild life of Indian savages, there is an immense 
amount of good which goes far to prove our right to 
occupy their ancient home. And this immense amount 
of good, in its varied forms, is to be left as a rich heri- 
tage to many promising boys and many fair and lovely 
girls, who are now preparing in country and city 
homes for the conflict of the coming century. 

The work of the Pioneers is done. Most of those 
who here, in their young manhood and in the hopeful- 
ness and brightness of their earlier womanhood, laid 
the foundations for the successes and enjoyments of 
the present, have already gone beyond the reach of 
human words of praise or blame or cheer. Here and 
there is a grayhaired woman, and now and then there 



5(56 NORTHWESTERN INDIANA. 

can be found an aged man, who knew the life and 
shared the toils of seventy, sixty, and up to fifty years 
ago. But they stand as do the few old oaks that can 
be found in our once open woodlands, few and lone, 
amid the thick "second growth" that covers so many 
broad acres now, reminding us of what once was in the 
home of the Indians and haunts of the deer. So these 
few aged ones, over whose heads the changes of four- 
score years have passed, remind the thoughtful and 
true ones among us of a sturdy generation of noble 
men and women who Have passed on. As the voices 
are heard here no more of the Indians who once held 
over this region an undisputed sway, so are the voices 
silent now of the scores and the hundreds of the Saxon 
race who succeeded those red children of the wilds 
and whose footsteps often followed the red man's well 
beaten trail. Those joyous children in the pioneer 
households, who on prairies and in woodland enjoyed 
a freedom equal almost to that of the beautiful wild 
animals around them, have been succeeded in their 
turn by a generation that know nothing of their rich 
free life. Men and women and children too, of a quite 
different class, have entered upon the heritage won by 
the true-hearted pioneers, some of them worthy to 
enjoy the results of others' toil ; some of them sadly 
wanting in the traits that characterize a noble man- 
hood, ready and eager to grasp results and striving 
only to bend these to their own selfish ends. 

But doubtless many of the thousands that are now 
and that are yet to be, as they enjoy comforts and ease 
and luxuries and life and love, made sure to them by 
self-denials and hardships and toil, will in their hearts 
honor the hardy and enterprising generation of build- 
ers that went before them, and will read with interest 



CONCLUSION. 567 



and gratitude the names of some of Indiana's pioneers. 
These from their labors rest. If they did not plan all 
that those of this generation here possess, if they* did 
not foresee the wonderful inventions and improve- 
ments of this stirring age, their lives here made possi- 
ble for others all these conveniences that we now 
enjoy. 

Note. July 30, 1900. I have enjoyed the work of 
collecting the material which the readers have here 
found, of putting it into what I have hoped might be 
an acceptable form, and also the late constant effort 
to see that the proofreading was fairly well done — 
attaining perfection I do not expect — and now, as this 
care and effort are coming so near to an end, I take 
the opportunity to express the hope and the prayer, 
that we who are now enjoying the rich inheritance of 
pioneer toils, privations, and bright hopes, may finally 
meet with our pioneer forefathers and those who with 
them gathered into the pioneer households, who en- 
couraged every effort and so patiently and lovingly 
helped in all that was good — even as we hope to meet 
the noble men and women of sacred history, with 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Sarahs and Nao- 
mis and Ruths, and the Marys and Marthas and Sa- 
lomes — in the glad future of the Endless Kingdom. 



To the compositors and proofreaders, who have 
managed with so much skill and patience the manu- 
script copy put into their hands, a patience and a skill 
which I have highly appreciated > I here return hearty 
thanks. And to all who have had part in the printing 
of this book, for courtesy and kindness, I express 
appreciation and thanks. . T. H. B. 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

An Indian School 363 

A Risky Shot 465 

A Bee Sting 464 

An Aged Jouimalist 5 >4 

A Drive Hunt 95 

Alexander Robinson 31 

Activity, Enjoyment 131 

Agricultural Societies 426 

Agricultural Products 403 

Bald Eagle 512 

Battle of S. M 173 

Brookston 529 

Carey Mission 25 

Col. Hathaway 171 

County Organizations 98 

Crusade, Woman's 144 

Crown Point 297 

City West 309 

Chandonia 32 

Congressmen 156 

Creameries 408 

Calumet Region 511 

Deer 96 

Door Village Fort 80 

Districts 156 

Death by Freezing 525 

Death by Accident 527 

Dinwiddie Clan 434 

Draining Marshes 439 

Early Celebrations 462 

Extracts, Solon Robinson . . . 458 



rAGE. 

Early Settlers. 

Of White Co 39 

Of Pulaski 40 

Of Jasper 41 

Of Newton 42 

Of La Porte 43 

Of Porter 46 

Of Lake 50 

Of Starke 42 

Early Social Gatherings. 

Spelling Schools 88 

Literary Societies 88 

Religious Meetings 89 

Singing Schools 90 

Dancing Parties 89 

East Chicago 305 

Eai'ly Travels. 

Of Jersey Church 352 

Of J. H. Luther 352 

Fort Dearborn 23 

First School Visitations 375 

Fur Animals. 20 

Granges 426 

Game Birds 19 

General Outlines 11 

General Packard 177 

Guarding Railroad 134 

Herds of Cattle 409 

Human Remains 488 

Hammond 302 

Ho'bart 295 



561 



PAGE. 

Institutes. 

Teachers' 1 39 

Farmers' 140 

Sunday School 1-11 

Temperance 142 

Indiana Boundary 35 

Indian and White Life 68 

Improved Roads 522 

Indiana Territory 13 

Indiana City 275 

Judicial Circuits and Judges 160 

Kentland 2.M 

Knox 270 

Land States 59 

Lakes and Streams 112 

Liverpool 275 

Lowell 292 

La Porte 341 

Long-bridge 358 

Lecturers at La Porte 399 

La Porte Library — 398 

Library at .Michigan City 400 

Libraries 292 

Milk Shipping 408 

McClure 393 

Mexican War 162 

Massacre. F. D 24 

M issionaries 212 

Monticello 263 

Native Plants 450 

Native Animals 448 

N. W. Territory 14 

Native Fruits 16 

Ordinance of 1787 14 

Oxen Disappearing 127 

Object Lesson 470 

Pottawatomie Indians 22 

Papers and Editors 532 

Public School Statistics 377 

Private Schools. 

In La Porte 386 

In Lake 387 

In Porter 389 



PAGE. 

Parochial Schools 

Political History. 

Campaign of 1810 Il9 

Campaign of 1848 152 

Pioneer School s 362 

Pioneer Schools 368 

Pioneer Schools 370 

Pioneer Schools ... 87 

Quick Trip, by James Adams 359 

Religious History 178 

Methodist Episcopal ISO 

German Methodists 187 

Swedish M. E 188 

Congregationalism 1F8 

Presbyterians 190 

United Presbyterian 199 

Baptists 201 

Lutherans 214 

"Reformed*' 216 

"Christians"' 217 

Protestant Episcopal 221 

Roman Catholics 222 

Unitarian s 225 

Second Adventists 226 

Quakers 227 

"New Church" 227 

Free Methodists 227 

United Brethren 230 

Believers 231 

German Evangelists 232 

Dyer Union Clmrch 233 

Rensselaer 255 

Reuben Tazier 175 

Sunday Schools 234 

Sportsmen 517 

School Children after a 

Deer 375 

Senator Miller on Public 

Schools 385 

School Taught by U. McCoy . 373 

S. S. Statistics 242 

Solon Robin son 472 

Saggonee 17 

Saggonee 23 

Shaubenee 30 

Social Life 138 

Statistics of 1850 122 

Some Statistics 536 



570 


INDEX. 




Towns and Villages. 


TAGK. 

.... 247 


Trustees and Surveys 

Townships 

Teachers' Associations. . 

Valparaiso 

Voters in 1895 

Wild Honey 


r-AGE. 

.... 58 
. . 121 
... 429 


Of Jasper 

Of White 


.... 253 
.... 260 


Of Pulaski 

Of Starke 

Of Lake 

Of Porter 


.... 265 
.... 270 
.... 275 
308 


... 327 

... 156 

18 


Of La Porte 

The Swan 


.... 330 
513 


Wild Pigeons 

Winamac 

Waverly 


... 19 
... 265 


Teachers. 
In Lake Co., 1869 .' 


.... 375 
.... 380 
.... 322 

.... 521 


... 319 
... 164 


In Newton Co. , 1899 




... 296 


Tassinong 

Telephone Companies . . 


Wild Fruit 


. . . 510 


White Owl 


... 512 



y^L.MrcmoAx/,, 




